


Something in Your Eyes

by crazygirlne



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bar Fight, Early Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Happy Ending, Loosely Follows S1 and S2, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Secondary Pairings almost all Canon, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Trust, Unplanned Pregnancy, but nobody dies in Destiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2018-09-22 18:58:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 79,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9621221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazygirlne/pseuds/crazygirlne
Summary: “I’m pregnant,” she blurts before she can change her mind. “It’s yours,” she adds, not sure she can handle it if he asks. It’s not like they’ve had a discussion about exclusivity; it was supposed to be just one night, no strings.ORCC accidental pregnancy AU, with nods to canon and plenty of tropes.





	1. Something in Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tavyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavyn/gifts).



> For Tavyn, who prompted and encouraged this fic.
> 
> Captain Canary, modern day accidental pregnancy AU. Some chapters will be adult, but this one is teen. Expect about 16 chapters, updated Tuesdays.
> 
> Story and chapter titles from “Feels Like Home.”

Sara Lance looks down at the piece of plastic that seems much too small to change her life, but there are three little letters, so much clearer than counting lines.

_YES_

She closes her eyes, thinking about the man who’s the other half of this equation and how things were supposed to be simple, how complicated things will be from here on out.

“Shit,” she says. “Shit, shit, shit.”

***

**Six weeks earlier**

“Do I have to go to this party?” Sara asks, eyeing Kendra Saunders, her friend and coworker. “It’s not like I’m really gonna know anyone else there.”

It’s not that Sara objects to parties in general. There was a time when she went to plenty of them. It’s just that a gathering of people who have various security jobs around Central City isn’t really what she’d had in mind for the rest of her day.

“You know Ray,” Kendra answers. “And I think they’re pulling in some people that used to work at S.T.A.R. Labs, so there should be stuff to talk about.”

Knowing there will be people from S.T.A.R. Labs doesn’t help as much Kendra’s implying, either; she doesn’t really know anyone from their security team, despite the fact that some of them are friends with Oliver, her ex.

Kendra sees Sara’s continued hesitation. “Come on. You're the head of security for the largest bank in Central City. You have to at least put in an appearance.” Sara sighs, and Kendra grins, clearly sensing her victory. “You won't regret it.”

***

She stands on a rooftop a few hours later, and despite Kendra’s assurances, she's seriously regretting the fact that she's surrounded by strangers instead of at home, where she could be either watching Netflix or working out.

At least the drinks aren't half bad. She even knows the bartender, Thea, who she's kept up a half-hearted friendship with since breaking things off with Oliver years ago. If Sara were less of a workaholic, they might be closer. Thea, though, is too busy working to chat right now, so Sara’s found a quiet corner on the rooftop.

That's where Ray and Kendra find her a few minutes later. The two aren't dating yet, but Sara knows it's coming. Kendra is finally doing better after her husband was presumed dead in a training mission gone horribly wrong a few years back. It was a rough time, and Sara is happy to see her friend doing well enough to consider moving on.

“Hey, Sara,” Ray says, friendly as usual despite the look of concern he’s aiming her way. “Aren't you enjoying the party?”

Sara forces a smile; she knows if she tells him the truth, he'll make it his mission to help her have fun. “Yeah, I just needed a minute somewhere the music’s quieter.”

“Oh.” He turns to face the speakers, then turns back with a shrug. “Yeah, I guess it is pretty loud. Good music, though.”

Sara nods. The whole party is pretty nice, she has to admit. The DJ is Thea’s boyfriend, Roy, and his taste isn't half bad. There are lights strung up all over the rooftop so that it's well-lit without being overly bright. Everyone really does seem to be having a good time.

“Okay, well, we’ll get back to it,” Ray says, starting back toward the center of the rooftop.

Kendra hangs back for a second. “Let me know if you need to get out of here.” Of course Kendra can tell Sara isn't really feeling it. She spares a genuine smile for her friend before she's left alone again.

Sara’s solitude is interrupted just a few short minutes later. A man she's never met gets most of the way to the corner before seeing her. He hesitates, waiting until she nods in greeting to come closer.

“You found the only quiet spot on this roof,” he says, stopping a respectable distance from her. He's close enough that she can make out the startling blue of his eyes, the tiny flecks of gray in his hair that are at odds with the youth in his face and his lean, muscular build. “Leonard Snart.” He holds out a hand and she takes it, immediately warming to him when he doesn't try to give her a weak handshake just because she's female.

“Sara Lance.”

He raises his eyebrows like the name means something to him. “Raymond’s mentioned you,” he says, “though I wouldn't necessarily take that as a compliment. The man never stops talking.”

Sara snorts, letting go and dropping her hand back to her side. “True. In his defense, he's sometimes got pretty good things to say.” Leonard tilts his head in agreement, and she relaxes, leaning against the raised ledge that serves as a wall. She watches him take another sip of his drink before she speaks again. “How do you know Ray?”

“He works for me,” Leonard answers. “He's trying to transfer from our planning department to the field. We've been working together more often now that he's in training.” He comes nearer, turning so his back is also resting against the wall. He's still a little closer than she'd normally want a stranger to be, but there's something in his stance, something in her gut that tells her she can trust him.

She knows Ray works for a dedicated security firm rather than on a company’s security team, but she doesn’t know a whole lot about what they do.

“So what do you do for Waverider Industries?” she asked Leonard.

He smirks before growing serious, looking down at his drink and then back up at her, pulling some move where he looks out from under his eyelashes. It should look ridiculous on him, but it really, really doesn’t. Sara takes a sip from her own drink, trying to distract herself from her reaction to him, and waits for him to respond.

“I’m a professional thief,” he says evenly. Sara raises an eyebrow at him, and the smirk reappears. “I head up one of the Waverider’s departments. If you want your security thoroughly vetted for flaws, we’re who you come to. I go on the most sensitive jobs myself, make sure they’re done right.”

“How exactly do you check security?” she asks. She’s pretty confident in her own team’s abilities, but she wouldn’t exactly turn down a chance to safely test the bank’s security measures.

“By breaking in, of course,” he drawls, and Sara grins despite herself.

“Of course.” She makes a note to call him in the next week or so to discuss employing his services. She doesn’t particularly want to actually work on any business deals while they’re off duty.

“And what do you do, Sara?” There’s too much warmth in her name, and she realizes they’re still holding eye contact. Over the course of their brief conversation, she’s already managed to forget the rest of the party.

She has two choices. She can break eye contact, make it clear she isn’t interested, as she’s done with pretty much everyone since the last time she and Ollie broke up, or she can hold eye contact, see where this unusual combination of immediate trust and instant attraction takes her.

Against her better judgement, maybe, she doesn’t look away.

***

Leonard feels the tendril of interest grow stronger as she holds his gaze, and it turns into a simmer when he sees answering attraction in her eyes.

“I’m head of security at Timeless Bank.”

He thinks maybe he should be surprised that a woman, especially one so small, heads security at the most prestigious bank in town, but it works for her. They’ve only been talking for a few minutes, but she radiates both confidence and competence. He’s had more than enough training to pick out her muscles even under her flowing dress sleeves, and even though the practical application of security isn’t someone every department head handles, he wouldn’t be surprised if she can handle it, and well.

He must be silent too long, because she continues. “I know I’m young for the job, but I’ve earned it, and I’m good at it.”

“I believe it,” he responds immediately, letting the truth seep into his voice. He’s rewarded by another smile. He finishes off his drink and sees she’s done the same. “Want one more?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says, “but not here. There’s a dive bar down the street that I go to sometimes. Interested?”

 _Very_ , he admits to himself. “Excellent idea.”

***

The bar really is a dive.

After letting her friend know she was leaving, Sara uses the walk to explain that she frequents the bar anytime she doesn’t feel like drinking at home. When they get inside, it’s loud, but not uncomfortably so, and the clientele looks a bit rough. There’s an old-fashioned jukebox playing outdated music, and the bartender ignores Leonard and Sara entirely when they enter.

He doesn’t hate it.

They sit at a dark little booth after getting a couple cheap beers, and the conversation flows easily. Leonard can’t remember a time he’s clicked so quickly with anyone. He gets along well with Mick, the second-in-command of his department, but they’d always had a very particular sort of dynamic.

She seems to feel the same. “Okay,” she says, “I’m just gonna come out and say it. I like you, and I feel like we might be able to have something good, and I thought maybe...” She takes a breath. “But we work in the same circle, and we’re both really busy, and maybe we should just try being friends and see where it goes from there.”

He can tell she’s making excuses, but he’s not going to push. He already knows he wants Sara in his life, and if it’s as a friend, he’ll take it. It’s not like it would be the best time for a relationship for him, anyway; he’s working on another certification that’ll get him a raise and open even more doors in his career, and distractions are probably a bad idea.

He knows better than to let his guard down for a relationship, anyway.

“Friends,” he says aloud. He realizes he’s staring back at her, and he drops his eyes.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” she says, standing. “You want to dance, Leonard?”

He tries to smile, but he’s pretty sure it comes out as a smirk. He does, at least, have a reason to look at her again. “You go right ahead. I’ll watch.”

She shrugs and makes her way to the dance floor, swaying easily to “Love Will Keep Us Together,” and he knows he made the right call. He’ll get his attraction under control, if that’s what they’re planning to do, but being too close to her when she’s moving like that is a bad idea right now. Still, he’s true to his word, and he watches.

He’s not watching long before she’s approached by a man who’s about Mick’s size. Leonard evaluates the situation, ready to intervene, as Sara talks to the other man. She slips into taunts and insults when he doesn’t back off. When the man resorts to physical persuasion, Sara responds in kind, pausing just long enough to look at Leonard.

“I’ve got this,” she says with a confident grin. If the situation weren’t escalating, Leonard would probably close his eyes at the surge of want it elicits.

Friends.

As it is, he instead watches her fight. She’s as capable as he thought, moreso, even, and the way she moves should be in instructional videos for both combat and dance. When the assailant’s buddies join in the fray, Sara looks calmly at Leonard.

“Now I could stand for a little help.”

He hears his beer bottle shatter as he throws himself gladly into the fight.

***

They’ve both got contacts in local law enforcement, and they have witnesses who attest to the fact that neither Sara nor Leonard started the fight or used excessive force, so they’re let go with an unofficial reprimand.

“Thanks, Joe,” he says as the detective leaves. “You know I’ll stay out of trouble.”

“Uh huh,” Detective West answers with good-natured skepticism, and Leonard smirks after his car as it leaves.

“I should probably head home,” Sara says, drawing his attention.

“Me, too,” he agrees.

Neither of them move. He’s staring again, he knows this, but she’s staring right back, and he’s almost certain she’s leaning toward him and–

He forces himself to take a step backward. Friends.

“I’ll get your work number from Ray,” she says. “I want to talk to you about setting something up.”

Leonard nods. Work. That’s something he can handle.

“It was good meeting you.” His voice is lower than usual, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

“Same,” she says. “My apartment’s just a couple blocks from here, so I’m gonna…” She jerks a thumb over her shoulder, and when he doesn’t object, she turns and walks away.

He lets himself watch for a few seconds before he turns and starts toward home.

***

After locking her apartment door, Sara slips off her shoes and sinks into her sofa. She tells herself that setting boundaries with Leonard was a good idea; if she let herself, she’d fall way too hard and fast, and she isn’t looking to fall in love right now. She’s in a good place, and the last few times she’s tried love, they haven’t worked out so well for her.

She pushes away the way his eyes had almost burned into her, making her hot in stark contrast to the icy blue.

They’ll be friends, maybe even good ones. There’s not much that’s more important in life than someone who can be counted on to be there when you need them the most, and Sara can’t shake the feeling that she and Leonard can be that for each other. It doesn’t matter that they’ve just met. She’ll miss out on the relationship in favor of keeping the friend, and she’s comfortable with that.

Even if it maybe doesn’t explain why his face is the last thing she thinks about before she falls asleep.


	2. Makes Me Want to Lose Myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each chapter is approximately real time; I’ll be updating once a week, and in each chapter, either a week has passed since the last, or a week will pass during the chapter, or some combination of the two. Think TV dramas that don’t just cover a few days.
> 
> Though I’ve done some research (I can’t NOT), this fic isn’t supposed to be serious and may have some issues with accuracy in areas that are outside of my expertise.
> 
> Continued thanks to Tavyn for encouragement and feedback!
> 
> Okay! Now that housekeeping notes are done, let’s get back to the fun!

Leonard is more excited than he wants to admit when the request comes in and he's officially hired to break into Sara’s bank.

He loves a challenge, and he knows this one isn't going to be easy. For one, the head of security ordered the “heist,” rather than the corporate boss. While Sara still won't be allowed to inform her team of what's going to happen, things typically go better for the companies whose security team leaders have faith that they're, well, secured.

They ended up talking for over an hour when she called to book the job, and they’ve exchanged texts every day since, and yet, he’s still looking forward to seeing her almost as much as he looks forward to the challenge of the job.

He doesn’t realize he’s actually treating the job differently than he would until Mick confronts him.

“What’s so special about this job, boss?” the man asks a few minutes into their working lunch break.

“What do you mean?” Leonard asks. “It’s one of the best scores in Central City. I would think that’s obvious.”

“Yeah,” Mick says, “but there’s something different about it. You’re actin’ like it’s your first job, like you gotta impress the boss. You’ve been in charge of Acquisitions for years,” he adds. “Ain’t nobody you need to impress.”

Leonard frowns. Mick’s right; he’s been in charge of the division, unofficially called Acquisitions, for years. As much as he loves his job, though, he’s felt like he’s been coasting lately. There’s nowhere else to go in his career, not without losing the ability to be hands-on, and he’s not willing to give that up. Things just haven’t been challenging recently. Each job is like the last.

He’s the best at what he does, and it’s hard to find a worthy match.

“Met the head of security for Timeless Bank at that shindig last week,” he says finally.

“That one you left early?” Mick shoves the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.

“That’s the one,” Leonard drawls. “She’s not offering our usual job. She’s not some boss who wants to catch her security team slacking off so that she can fire someone.” He slides the standard fact sheet on Sara over to Mick, rattling off the most relevant data from memory. “Her dad’s a cop, and she shadowed him at the station as often as she could. She got an advanced degree in tech security, and she’s an expert in three different martial arts. There’s never been a successful breach in any department she’s headed.”

“She hot as she looks in her photo?”

“Mick,” Leonard says, looking up at the ceiling. “It’s not about that. We’re… friends.” He looks back at his second-in-command, who looks amused.

“Don’t sound too sure of that.”

“I’m sure.” Leonard forces certainty into his tone and manages to stave off the fleeting regret at the accuracy of the statement. It’s not like anything he’s told Mick is untrue, after all.

“Fine then,” huffs Mick. “You’re sure. You’re not talking about this Sara Lance like she’s anything special. You’re only interested in the job because it might actually hold your attention.”

“Precisely.”

“Uh huh.” Mick snatches the rest of Leonard’s sandwich off his side of the desk. “So what’s the game plan? You still taking Haircut?”

Leonard chuckles. “Yes, I’m taking Raymond. The plan is this…”

***

Sara spots Leonard as soon as he enters the bank. She knows this might not be the attempted heist; according to the contract, he can come at any point during the week for reconnaissance, and he can attempt the break-in any of the seven days he has available.

This is day two.

Sara isn’t allowed to alert the team, but she has access to all the bank’s security feeds in her office, and it’s not uncommon for her to hole up in her office for hours on end. Watching this play out won’t alert her team to anything suspicious.

To pull this off, Leonard will have to get to one of the secured vaults, get something out of it, and get it back out of the bank. He’s not allowed to make a scene in front of customers–even a fake robbery is bad for business–but the security team is fair game for anything short of injury.

She hasn’t actually seen Leonard since the bar, but she already recognises the confident way he moves. Her reaction to it takes her off guard.

She tells herself it’s just the excitement. She’s enjoyed talking with him this week, and she really does think they’ll make good friends. She’s only feeling this much attraction to him, on a screen no less, because her energy is high as a result of the situation.

That _is_ part of it, at least. She knows her team is good; she’s trained each and every member of it herself. A couple of them are newer, like Rory Regan, but even though she’d been underwhelmed when he’d shown up in rags for his first day of work, he’s good at what he does. They all are.

Sara watches him chat easily with one of the cashiers, who’s practically melting at his attentions, and she rolls her eyes. Though not directly under her command, Sara keeps the bank’s other employees briefed on protocol and potential consequences, and she isn’t worried he’ll get where he needs to be quite so easily, not with just a bit of well-placed charm..

She narrows her eyes at the screen when Ray joins him.

Ray’s been in a lot lately, visiting Kendra on her breaks, so the employees are all at least vaguely familiar with him, and Sara watches the cashier relax further when Ray comes and clasps Leonard on the shoulder.

Sneaky. She should’ve known it was a possibility, though; she already knew Ray was working with Leonard. Technically, it isn’t outside the rules of conduct. Ray doesn’t have security clearance and isn’t allowed in the safe without–

Shit.

Ray pulls one of their electronic keys from his pocket and hands it to Leonard, who thanks him with a nod. What are they pulling, here? Did Leonard “forget” his key?

He’ll still need system verification, complete with photo ID, but somehow, Sara’s not surprised when the cashier types on the computer and then nods, seemingly satisfied. Leonard’s team must have a hell of a hacker. It’s probably how they got the key, too. She’s been telling Rip, who runs the bank and controls the budget, that they need to add biometric security, but he hasn’t listened yet.

The cashier signals for an escort to the vault, and Sara nods to herself when she sees it’s Nyssa who responds. The woman’s good, and she’s naturally suspicious. It was a large part of why the relationship she attempted with Sara didn’t work out, but it serves her well, and right now it serves Sara well, too; Nyssa doesn’t trust Ray, and she won’t be swayed by Leonard’s smooth voice or brilliant blue eyes.

Focus, Sara.

At least if Leonard actually succeeds, there’s not an official penalty; he charges a flat rate, no matter the outcome, and while she hadn’t accepted a discount, she had raised the stakes the night before.

_winner buys the loser a beer_

_You’re on._

She knows she’s playing with fire, but she can’t bring herself to care. Besides, friends can share drinks.

Sara watches as Ray falls back, waiting in the lobby when Nyssa glares at him. He fidgets, looking nervously at the door she and Leonard disappear behind, at the main doors, and at the visible cameras within sight.

“Come on,” Sara whispers. This is the first time they’ve slipped up. It’s possible the employee managing the cameras will dismiss the behavior because it’s Ray, but his actions should be raising so many red flags right now.

She keeps half an eye on Ray while tracking Leonard’s trek to the high security vault. Nyssa’s walking more slowly than usual, but Sara can’t tell whether she senses something or is just in a mood. A full minute passes, and Leonard’s at the vault, when the message comes over the headset.

“Hey, Nyss,” Rory says, “I know that guy came with Ray, but Ray’s acting pretty screwy. Standby while I double check his clearance.”

Good.

Leonard seems relaxed as he waits for Nyssa to open the door. When Rory tells Nyssa, “He checked out, but something still seems off. Keep an eye on him,” Nyssa opens the door, and Leonard’s posture doesn’t change at all.

Even knowing this is all a test, even having ordered it herself, Sara itches to stop what she knows is coming. In the vault, Leonard walks casually to one of the secured drawers. He pauses, showing his first sign of hesitation, and he drops the key.

Sara frowns. That was either intentional or very sloppy, and she’s fairly certain Leonard isn’t sloppy.

He bends down to pick the key back up, then clicks it into place and opens the drawer, reaching in and pulling out a large jewel. He’s accomplished more of his task than she’d have guessed, but he still has to get the stone out of the bank.

She doesn’t realize how much she’s pulled to him until she notices a minor commotion in the lobby, which she was supposed to be watching along with the vault. Kendra’s there, and it looks like she’s berating Ray, whose eyes are still darting toward the vault.

Rory comes over the radio again. “Stop him, Nyssa. I ran his info through the backup, and it’s faked.”

Nyssa moves too quickly for Sara to see; the woman’s clearly kept up with her training, which didn’t all come from Sara. Leonard is cuffed in seconds.

Meanwhile, in the lobby, Kendra answers her phone, hangs it up and puts it away calmly, then twists Ray’s arm easily up behind his back and leads him toward the holding cell.

Sara grins, waiting until she knows both men will be in the cell before she joins her team.

“Miss Lance,” Rory says when he sees her. “I was just about to notify you. I was surprised you weren’t here sooner.”

“You did a good job, all of you,” she says, making eye contact with each team member individually. “These two can wait in the holding cell while I brief you on what just happened.” She grins through the bars at the men as she and the team head down the hall. Ray looks a little like a kicked puppy, and Leonard looks completely at ease, leaning against the wall like he’s got nothing better to do.

She fills the team in quickly, congratulating them on a job well done and promising not to set any more of these up any time soon, despite knowing they’d handle any others just as well. They’d halted the best in the business, after all, so why would she need to challenge them again?

Kendra seems tickled by the whole thing, and she joins Sara on her way back to the holding cell.

“The guy with Ray, that’s the man you’ve been hung up on this week, right? The one you left the party with?”

“Yeah,” Sara answers absently, mind already on when she’ll be able to take Leonard out for that drink, reveling in the celebratory high. “Wait,” she says, realizing what she’s just agreed to, “no, I’m not hung up on him.”

“Sure you aren’t,” Kendra says good-naturedly, stopping her ribbing when they’re in earshot of the little cell. “Ray,” she says when they’re in front of the bars, her voice dripping with the same tone she uses when she pretends to scold Sara.

“I thought you told me you were off today,” Ray protests, almost a whine.

“I just came in to have lunch with Sara. And you told me you were a science geek.” Kendra crosses her arms, and Sara struggles not to laugh.

Ray, though, doesn’t know Kendra as well as she does yet. “Well, you see, I _am_ , technically. Clearly.” He gestures to the cell. “Was it all my fault it went south?”

“Not entirely,” Sara says, feeling Leonard’s eyes on her. “Your faked info was good, but we have redundant systems we can check if something’s wrong. One of them is kept offline and updated manually, so whoever hacked our main system couldn’t have accessed it.”

“So it wasn’t all my fault,” Ray says, turning to Leonard.

“They wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong if you hadn’t been been acting suspicious.” Leonard’s voice is matter-of-fact rather than derisive, and Sara decides he’s not a horrible teacher.

“Oh,” is the only response Ray seems able to manage.

Kendra takes pity on him and opens the door. “Come on, Ray. Let’s go.”

The two of them leave, and Leonard and Sara are alone.

***

Sara joins him in the holding room as soon as the others are gone. She stops closer to him than he expects, and he has to remind himself that he should behave, that she only wants to be friends.

“What am I gonna do with you now that I’ve got you all to myself?” she asks, smirking.

Then again, if that’s how she wants to play it…

“I can think of a few things I wouldn’t mind,” he drawls, and he’s gratified to see her eyes darken.

“Like getting a drink?” she says, and her voice is just a hair lower than usual. “You _do_ owe me a beer.”

“So it seems.” He waits a beat. “Then again, you _did_ lock me in here with Raymond. That has to be worth something.”

“You were only in here for a few minutes,” Sara responds, and he smirks before he straightens.

Standing straight brings him so close to Sara that he has to look down at her. She’s looking back up at him, and despite his internal reminder, his eyes drop to her lips. They look soft, and they’re open ever so slightly, still pulling up to one side, and Leonard can’t help but wonder what she’d taste like, what she’d do if he just went for it.

“I can’t,” he says, dragging his eyes back to hers. “I can’t get a drink today, that is.”

“Tomorrow?” she asks, and it’s not his imagination that she’s leaning toward him.

“Tomorrow,” he agrees. He argues with himself before reaching out a hand without breaking eye contact. “It was a pleasure working with you.”

She takes his hand, and while there aren’t literal sparks, there’s definitely something, a pull that’s even stronger with contact, and she swallows before she speaks.

“Same.”

He’s not quite smiling when he leaves the bank, thinking about their interactions and about something else he’d kept from her while in the holding room. He walks for just a few seconds before he lets his trophy slip out of the little pocket in his sleeve and into his palm. It’s a penny, taken from the floor of the vault when he “dropped” the key.

Technically, it counts as something taken from the vault he wasn’t authorized to be in, and he got it all the way out of the bank. He tosses the coin in the air and catches it before pocketing it.

He looks forward to seeing Sara’s face when he shows her tomorrow.


	3. In Your Arms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the late chapter last week; I was 100% sure I’d said this would post on Wednesdays. I saw today I was wrong. I am working on writing chapter 8, so if I ever forget to post, you are quite welcome to come yell at me on tumblr (captainwhogotthecanary) because it’s a genuine mistake, not a problem with the writing schedule! 
> 
> Last section of this chapter NSFW.
> 
> Profuse and ever-present thanks to Tavyn! Found out yesterday that we share a birthday, so now she's even cooler ;)

Drinks the next night go well. There's still that tension, that attraction Sara isn't sure she'll ever really shake, but more than that, she feels like she's known Leonard forever. They click so well that she's already having trouble remembering what it was like not to have him in her life.

Maybe that's why she isn't as surprised as she should be when it's time to pay for drinks.

“Thanks for the drink,” Sara says, ribbing him about his loss as gently as she has been all night.

“About that,” he says, pulling a penny out of his pocket and placing it on the bar. “Seems this found its way out of your vault.”

His voice is low, ringing with pride that she'll admit he deserves, and it's almost hard to concentrate on what he's said rather than how he said it.

Almost.

“How?” she asks, mind racing. She doesn't even consider the fact that it might be a random penny rather than the win he’s claiming. “Wait, when you dropped the key, that was it, wasn't it?”

He smirks, picking the penny back up and holding it out for her. “You should make sure any suspected thieves who've had access to the vault are patted down before they're released.”

Sara manages a scowl. “Well, normally I would have, but I was–” She stops short, not wanting to say what she's thinking.

That she was distracted by him, by their banter and how close they were. That she's pretty sure if she'd actually patted him down, they would've given poor Rory a hell of a show on the security feed.

He's still holding the penny, and she takes it, hoping he'll drop the subject.

“You were what?”

She meets his eyes, and there's a heat there that's entirely impossible to ignore. It's like he's seeing who she is, like she's stripped bare in front of him and he can't wait to see even more.

Another image she really doesn't need to be fighting off right now.

“I was planning to buy you a drink, apparently,” she says, reaching for her wallet, breaking eye contact in the process.

“Much obliged.”

His voice manages to be ridiculously appealing even with the two words. Sara quite firmly pushes away the thought that Leonard could probably get rich narrating erotica.

***

A couple nights later, he calls.

“Sorry I didn't just text like we have been,” he says, “but I thought it would be better to extend an invite and plea for help this way.”

“Oh yeah?” Sara asks, intrigued. “And what do you need help with?”

“A society function,” he says. “I’m doing reconnaissance for another job, and none of the people I’d normally take with me are available. I’d appreciate it if you’d be my escort.”

Sara internally curses her reaction to the final word. “When is it?”

“Friday evening. You’ll come?” He pauses, but he continues before she can answer. “Strictly professional and platonic, of course.”

“Sure,” she says after a few seconds, using the time to repeat _professional and platonic_ to herself. “I’m not that big on society stuff, but I have a feeling this could be fun.”

***

Friday, she meets him at his apartment’s parking garage, ready to go to the function; they decided it’d be easier for her to park here, where it’s free, and take one car. He’s proud of his lack of outward reaction to her dress, which flows, off-white and soft, nearly to the ground, with a slit that goes up almost to her thigh.

At least, he’s proud until he tells her she looks nice, and she does a quick, theatrical spin that reveals exactly how low her dress dips in the back.

He has to clear his throat before he can speak. “Very nice.”

“Same to you,” she says, deliberately looking him up and down. “We clean up good.”

It’s easier once they’re in the car, discussing the logistics of the evening while he keeps his eyes on the road.

“It’s an easy mission,” he says. “I just need to see as much of the building as possible. The function is a perfect excuse. Most of it will be open to the attendees, and if I’m caught in other areas, one person alone usually looks more suspicious than two together.”

“Oh, I get it,” Sara says, tone playful. “You’re hoping we’ll have to make out in order to maintain your cover.”

Leonard’s lips twitch. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly mind. Unfortunately, that’s not my primary goal tonight.”

“Yeah, sure.” He can almost hear her smile, and he chances a look at her, sees how closely she’s watching him, that her body is angled toward him as much as the seat belt allows. More than once in the past few days, he’s regretted not at least trying to make a case for seeing where they go in a more immediate fashion, but he hasn’t wanted to make her uncomfortable or give her a reason to kick his ass.

But there’s something about the night, or maybe the way she’s acting, that gives him hope.

“The moment you change your mind about what our future looks like, Sara,” he says seriously, “I promise I will make it my mission to put my mouth on yours as often as I can.”

“Oh,” she nearly squeaks. “That’s good to know.”

The car falls silent, but a glance reveals she’s still watching him. He put his cards on the table as much as he’s comfortable with at this time, and she didn’t shoot him down.

When they get out of the car, she immediately takes his arm and starts commenting on some of the big names she sees filing into the building. They relax into the same easy, charged rapport they’ve had every time they’ve been together.

Instead of distracting him, he finds it’s almost easier to concentrate on the job than usual. It’s as if all his senses are on high alert, and they’ve only circled the main area twice before he’s ready to scope out the quieter rooms. Sara follows his lead easily, and her smiles when passing other guests are just friendly enough to help them blend in.

“Need to go down that hallway,” he says quietly once they’re near a semi-secured doorway, with just a few people around, only the one unarmed guard to keep them out.

She turns to face him, her back to the security guard, and winks before she speaks, just loudly enough to be overheard. “I can’t believe she snuck hard alcohol in here. It’s just supposed to be beer and wine tonight, right?”

“To do it right outside these doors takes some stones,” he says, jerking his head toward the nearest doorway.

It’s enough. The guard moves past them, and Leonard nicks the man’s keys in case he needs them. As soon as the guard is through the door, Sara and Leonard duck through the one he’d abandoned.

Sara laughs once when they see the hallway’s empty, and Leonard quirks an eyebrow at her.

“I didn’t expect that being on the other side of things would be so much fun,” she says in answer to his unspoken question. “I’m usually trying to _stop_ people like us.”

They move through the hallway, rounding a corner before Leonard sees the room that’s his primary target. There’s no security posted outside, no cameras watching the door from this side.

Sloppy.

He’s about to tell Sara as much when a side door starts to open.

“I’ve got an idea,” she whispers, leading him quickly back the way they’d come, opening what turns out to be a closet and ushering him in. She eases the door shut, and he can only just see her grin in the dim light.

He knows he’s playing with fire when he reaches out, putting a hand on either side of her waist so he can tell where she is, and leans down to whisper in her ear. “How’d you know this was a closet?”

“It made sense based on the layout,” she whispers back, and the two of them are so close that he can feel her heat all along his body.

She’s right, and anybody who’s studied blueprints or just building themselves with an eye to security might have come to the same conclusion, but it just shows that her instincts are as good as she is.

“You’d be an asset in my division.” His lips graze the tip of her ear, and he tightens his grip on her waist when she shivers. They’ve had some form of contact most of the night, but this is so close to something else, so close to _more_. He doesn’t realize he’s pulling her gently toward him until she shuffles forward.

Whatever might have happened is brought to an abrupt halt when the door opens, revealing a bewildered looking janitor. “You’re not supposed to be in here,” he says. “Not even for whatever it is you were doing.”

Sara speaks before Leonard, eying him lasciviously. “But can you blame me?” She winks at the janitor, then takes Leonard by the hand and leads them to safety.

***

Back at Leonard’s parking garage, Sara stands outside her car, fidgeting with her keys. Leonard comes and stands beside her, which does nothing to help her concentration. She’s been failing miserably at fighting her attraction all night, and she’s not sure how much longer she can keep it up.

“Do you want to come up for a while?”

“Yeah,” she answers before she can talk herself out of it. She knows that with the tension that’s been growing, it’s probably a bad idea, but the truth is, she just doesn’t want the night to end.

She follows him up to his apartment. They’re both quiet, but it’s not uncomfortable, despite all the emotions fighting to be let out. She looks around after he ushers her inside. It's bigger than her place, clean and functional, but it lacks much in the way of evidence that someone lives here. It could be one of those apartments they keep empty, furnished only for tours.

“Drink?” he asks, pulling some options out of the cupboard and setting them on the kitchen island.

“Sure,” she says, studying the area. “Surprise me.”

She finds a few photos on a bookcase. She’s still looking at them, at Leonard and a woman about her age, when she feels him come up behind her.

“My sister, Lisa,” he says, handing her the drink. He’s mentioned Lisa during their chats.

Sara takes the drink and turns to him, her breath catching when he’s standing even closer than she realized. Her eyes drop to his lips before she can catch herself, and she licks her own before lifting her eyes again.

His gaze is burning into her, and he takes a step forward so they’re as close as they were in that damned closet.

“What do you want, Sara?” he asks, voice rough and low.

“I want to kiss you.” She doesn’t recognize her own voice, but at this point, she doesn’t really care.

Leonard sets his drink on the bookcase before taking her untouched drink and doing the same, without putting space between them.

“This wouldn't stop with a kiss.” He bends his head to hers, their noses brushing. He drops a hand to her waist, the contact comforting and electrifying at once. “We shouldn't do this if you don't want sex.”

Fuck it. “Sleeping together just one night can't hurt,” she breathes, her lips grazing his.

He closes the non-existent space between them before she can consider changing her mind, and Sara feels it through her entire body when their lips finally make contact. She pours everything she’s been feeling over the past few weeks into the kiss, and she moans into his mouth when he pulls her flush against him.

He wants this exactly as much as she does.

She experiences something akin to panic when he pulls away suddenly.

“I don't have a–”

“We're good,” she interrupts, relieved he isn’t stopping them. She takes her pill every morning almost religiously. “You're clean?” she asks. He nods. “Then we're good.”

***

He kisses her again, pulling her even closer.

He’s pretty sure this is what home is supposed to feel like: kissing Sara Lance. He knows she’ll probably pull away again after tonight, but even if he can’t talk her out of it, he can already tell this will be worth any resulting heartache.

One hand is tangled in her hair, and the other is against her bare back, feeling the heat of her as he holds her close. At the touch, she stops kissing him but doesn’t really pull away.

“Bedroom?” she suggests, and if he were a touch less aroused, he might be embarrassed at how much his response resembles a growl.

“Yes.” He slides his hands to her ass, and she goes along with his unstated plan immediately, hopping and wrapping her legs around him so he can carry her to the bedroom.

He kisses her while he walks, and she rocks her hips against his, grinning at his muffled curse. In the bedroom, he slows down, sliding his hands back to her back, knowing she’s strong enough keep herself in place. He trails his fingers along the skin, smiling against her lips when she wriggles as he gets near the zipper.

“Impatient?” he murmurs.

“Yes,” she says, and he pulls back far enough to see her face. Her eyes are somehow simultaneously bright with excitement and dark with desire. “I’ve been waiting for weeks.”

“So have I.” He starts sliding the zipper downward, and she lets herself drop to the ground so he can get it all the way down. She shrugs the dress off her shoulders, and it slithers to the floor, leaving her bare but for a scrap of black lace that passes for underwear. Leonard’s mouth goes dry.

“This is a bit uneven,” Sara protests, gesturing to him in his suit.

He’s glad he chose to forgo a tie when she’s able to go straight for the buttons on his shirt, making short work of them before pushing the shirt off of him. He takes off his undershirt before she can decide on her next move, and he’s not sure which of them initiates the next kiss, but it’s impossibly better this time, with her skin against his, her nipples hard points against him.

She fumbles with the buttons and zipper on his pants, pushing them down before frowning at his shoes. She shoves him gently so he sits on the bed, and she toes off her own shoes before removing his. He pulls his legs free from his pants, then waits as she drinks her fill.

He’s had a lot of years, and several other partners, to help him feel at ease with the scars he wears from a rough childhood and from “heists” gone particularly wrong. Sara’s eyes don’t linger on them; she seems to simply accept him as the part of him they are.

She has her own scars, he sees, and she doesn’t try to hide them. She hooks her thumbs into her underwear and slides her final piece of clothing over her hips before letting it drop to the ground.

Leonard stands, pulling her immediately toward him for another kiss, letting his hands roam her body. When they’re both breathless, he takes off his own underwear, entirely too ready for something he hadn’t been prepared for. She takes his hand, guiding it between her legs, and he sucks in a breath at the undeniable evidence that she’s just as ready as he is.

She moans as he slides some of her moisture upward before rubbing slow, firm circles over her clit. “Bed,” she demands, and he smirks before complying. As soon as he’s horizontal, she’s straddling him, but before she can take him in, he reaches up and resumes his attentions to her clit.

He watches, committing the image to memory: Sara Lance, naked and over him as he takes her closer and closer to the edge.

“I need,” she says as he speeds his motions, “I want…”

She reaches down and grips his erection, and his movement slows for a moment before he speeds up again, and when she guides him to her wet heat and slides down his length, he has to close his eyes at the sensation. It’s not that he’s never had sex without a condom, but it’s been as rare as the level of trust that’s required to do it.

He speeds his fingers once more, and only a few seconds pass before Sara cries out as an orgasm hits her hard. She clenches around him, and it’s hard to breathe for all the stimulation.

He slows, then pulls his hand away as she comes down, and he runs his hands across her skin, over her back, caressing her breasts, taking the motions from soothing to arousing as slowly as he can manage. When they’ve both gotten their breaths back, he moves his hands to her hips and flips them over so he’s on top. Her hair fans out over his pillow, and he’s between her thighs, still inside her, and he bends to give her a kiss before he starts moving.

Sara lifts her hips to meet each thrust, and when he speeds up, she wraps her legs around him, using her heels to bring them that much closer together. He slides his hands up her arms, lacing their fingers and pinning her hands to the bed in the process, and sooner than he intends, he’s spilling himself inside her as she comes apart around him again.

He lets himself collapse on top of her, careful not to burden her with too much of his weight, and she frees her hands so she can wrap her arms around him. They stay like that for a minute before he rolls them over so he’s on his back. She pulls off him and curls into his side, half of her on his chest.

“That was totally worth breaking the rules for one night,” she says, still a bit breathless, and he smirks despite himself, despite the fact that she still wants to avoid this after today.

“I’ll need a few minutes,” he murmurs against her hair, “but if this is only for tonight, maybe we should try that again, just to make sure it’s worth it.”

He fully intends to make the next time last as long as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: While if used correctly, birth control is fairly reliable, even perfect use has a failure rate. 
> 
> (just in case anyone is thrown off by a safe sex talk in an accidental pregnancy fic)


	4. Something in Your Voice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So because I'm covering a week per chapter, and some weeks are more eventful than others, the chapter lengths on this fic are way more variable than mine usually are. This chapter is the shortest at 2k words; the longest so far is about 5k.
> 
> Humor me? <3
> 
> Endless thanks to Tavyn for appreciating this story. Your excitement is so easy to get caught up in.

Sara turns on the water for her shower and wishes again that she could say the morning after was awkward, but it really wasn’t. 

They woke at nearly the same time, and after they were dressed, Leonard cooked bacon and eggs for the two of them. Once, Sara was sure he wanted to reach for her, and once, she stopped herself from doing the same, but by the time their plates were clear, they’d fallen back into their easy pattern of talk and banter.

It’s like sleeping with him made things both easier and harder. It’s not that she got him out of her system—not even close. It did, at least, diminish some of the curiosity about what sleeping with him would be like.

But it isn’t like the night was bad. Even a few days later, when the memories should be starting to fade if it was really a one-night thing with a friend, she can easily say it was one of the best sexual encounters of her life.

She was already worried about fucking everything up. It was part of why she’d decided they should stay friends. Romantic relationships just never work out for her, and she doesn’t want to lose him. She still stands by that, only…

If they’re as good in bed as they are everywhere else, what difference will it make, if they’re friends or more? Aren’t they just denying themselves?

Sara sighs and steps into the shower, hoping the water will help her clear her mind. Thoughts of Leonard in general make her smile. When her memories shift to  _ that _ night, she finds her hands lingering over damp skin, tracing routes Leonard took, until her breath is uneven and her knees are having trouble keeping her up, and she chooses to forego conscious thought for the next few minutes.

Calling Leonard’s name during climax isn’t a problem if there’s nobody around to hear it, right?

***

_ lunch @ your office at noon? _

Leonard isn’t sure what to think when Sara texts him—they aren’t really in the habit of eating lunch together—but he has no hesitation in his affirmative response. When she shows up a couple hours later, she’s got takeout from a sandwich place he likes. He mentioned it once, weeks ago now, and he smiles as she hands him his favorite.

She meets his eyes for a long moment, before blinking and looking away, and Leonard feels his expression shift almost immediately.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing!” she says a little too brightly, holding a fake smile for two seconds before sighing and dropping into the empty chair. “Okay, so I’ve been thinking about… stuff, and I wanted to talk to you.”

Leonard gets up and shuts and locks his office door, feeling Sara’s eyes on him the whole time. When he sits back down, she’s still watching him. “Go ahead,” he says.

Sara takes a deep breath. “I tend to run away from things,” she says. “That, or I jump into them without thinking. Not everything, but definitely relationships, and both of those things? They screw stuff up. The healthiest relationship I’ve ever had  _ really _ wasn’t healthy. And afterward, I mean, most of my exes, or at least the ones that count, are still in my life, at least to an extent, you know? 

“But it’s not the same. Any chance we had of being real friends…” Sara shakes her head. “It’s gone. And I feel like you and me matter too much to screw it up that way.” She breathes, watching him, clearly not finished. She hasn’t really told him anything he didn’t know, not yet. “The other night, though, felt just as right as keeping you around. I can’t shake it. Hell, I can’t even shower without—” She stops abruptly, and Leonard raises his eyebrows when she turns red, feeling himself stir in interest at the implications. 

“That’s not…” she continues. “That’s not relevant.”

“It might be,” he says.

Sara reddens further but rolls her eyes and seems to find her focus again. “Shut up. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to mess up this time. I don’t want to keep running away, and I don’t want to move too fast, but I know staying in this gray area isn’t fair for either of us. So I was hoping we could give it a month.”

“A month?” he repeats, not sure what else to say. Is she suggesting a trial run, or…

“A month. Well, four weeks. We’re friends until then, but if we’re still good and we still want what we’ve tried once—”

“Three times, technically,” he can’t help but interrupt, smirking. “Just the one night.”

She pretends he hasn’t spoken. “—then we’ll go all in, no more holding back.” Sara falls quiet, watching him. “What do you think?”

Leonard runs her proposal over in his mind. His gut instinct is to accept, but he always has preferred thinking things through, if time allows for it. What she’s offering is more than he hoped for; he was ready to accept friendship, without any overt romantic entanglements, without acknowledgement of the other night. It’ll be hard to wait four weeks, maybe, knowing how good they are, knowing they might try it again, but he’s certain it’ll be worth it.

“Four weeks,” he says. Sara stares before breaking out in the biggest grin he’s seen on her.

“Four weeks,” she repeats, and he feels a smile playing at his lips, and they watch each other until their connection gets to be too much, and he’s pretty sure he’s not going to make it four minutes without begging her to touch him.

He stands and opens his door before sitting back down. “Don’t want my team getting the wrong idea,” he says in explanation, distracting himself with the sandwich. Sara’s digging into her own. 

They aren’t eating for long, the silence comfortable and only slightly charged, when Mick knocks at the door.

“Hey, boss, can I talk at you?”

“Come in, Mick,” Leonard answers, setting down the remains of his sandwich and wiping his hands. He sees Mick studying Sara, who’s studying him right back, both of them appraising. He sighs. “Mick, this is Sara. Sara, this is Mick. You’ve both heard enough about each other. What do you need?”

Mick’s eyes have barely shifted to Leonard when Sara speaks, regaining their attention.

“You talk about both of us, huh?”

Leonard doesn’t dignify that with a response, but Mick chuckles.

“I like her,” the man says. “She doesn’t take any of your shit, does she?”

“You came for something?” Leonard shoves his amusement aside, aiming for long-suffering, and he’s pretty sure it works. At least, Sara’s grin fades to a smirk, and Mick finally answers.

“Just need you to sign off on my plan of attack for the Hex case next week.”

“Mind if I stay?” Sara asks. “I can sign something for confidentiality if you need me to. I don’t know how that works.”

“You can stay,” Mick answers before Leonard can. “He’s the boss, he makes the rules.”

Leonard isn’t surprised when she ends up contributing to the heist, only confirming his earlier thoughts about how well she’d fit in this sort of job, and he starts forming a different plan in his mind.

***

Over the next couple days, they manage to avoid discussing the state of their relationship. There’s nothing more they need to add to that right now, anyway. As they talk work instead, Sara becomes increasingly enamored with what Leonard does for a living.

When he offers her a job, it’s like he’s granted her a wish she didn’t know she had.

She can start working at Acquisitions.

It’s not something she considers lightly, and she doesn’t think she has it in her to quit her current job; the security team at Timeless Bank is hers, and she can’t dismiss the sense of pride she feels, even when work isn’t particularly challenging.

However, Leonard mentions that they accept part-time consultants.

“If that’s something you might be interested in,” he drawls as they talk on the phone over a lunch break, “I have an in with the head of that department.”

Sara snorts. “An in, huh?”

“In fact,” he continues, “I’ve already convinced him you’d be perfect for the job.”

“Tell me about it?” she prompts. “I mean, I basically know what you and Mick do at this point, and Ray… Where would I come in?”

“Primarily,” he answers, “you’d be involved the way you were at lunch the other day. You’d sit in on planning meetings, point out what we might have missed, maybe pick up some more tools of your own in the process.”

She nods to herself, tapping her pen against her lips. “Would I actually go on any jobs?”

“If you’d like,” he says. “You’d have to go through training, first, before you do more than reconnaissance. Raymond can tell you all about that.”

Sara laughs. Ray and Kendra have started dating, and Sara pretty much keeps her distance as much as she can, letting them go through the new-couple phase alone. “I’ll consider talking to him,” she allows. “I probably can’t work normal hours. I can rearrange my schedule here some if I’ve got notice, but I can’t take off every day.”

“That’s where the part-time contractor bit comes in,” Leonard says. “When you’re available, you help. If not, you don’t. If something ever changes, we can make you a bigger part of the team, but for now, that’s how it would work.”

“Can I have a few days to think about it?” Sara asks. “It sounds pretty great, but I don’t want to commit and then flake.”

“Of course,” he answers. “You know, you think you make bad choices, but you really don’t.”

At the reminder of their conversation, Sara realizes something.

“If we end up dating,” she asks, “will that be a problem with the job?”

“No,” Leonard says, but there’s some hesitation. “But we’ll need to fill out a form saying that we’re in a relationship before your employment starts. We can’t start a new one if you’re working for me.” Sara’s quiet while she thinks, and after a minute, Leonard continues. “This isn’t a now-or-never offer. If you’d rather wait until we’ve decided what we’re doing, you can still accept four weeks from now.”

_ Three weeks, four days _ , Sara corrects silently before scolding herself.

“Alright,” she says. “Give me a few days, and I’ll get back to you.” She sets her pen down and glances at the clock. “You should have time to finish telling me that story about Lisa.”

Leonard chuckles, and there’s a warm sound to it that Sara’s already come to associate with his sister.

“So she was pretending to be King Midas…”

***

It doesn’t end up being a hard decision. Sara checks her schedule, finding slow times and getting all the specifics from Len before she approaches her boss.

“Hey, Rip, you got a sec?”

He looks up from his paperwork, taking a moment to focus on her. “Yes, of course, Sara. What is it?”

She lays out the details, and he listens impassively while she explains what she’ll be doing and the ways she’s ensured it won’t affect her work at the bank, and when she’s done, he’s quiet. Around the time she’s ready to start fidgeting, he nods.

“As long as it doesn't become a conflict of interest, I don’t see any reason to object.”

Sara breathes a sigh of relief. She and Rip get along relatively well, but he doesn’t always react well when things don’t go according to his plan.

Which is exactly why she’s the one who handles security.

“Thanks, Rip,” she says, leaving the office with a bounce in her step. She gets back to her own office and makes sure she has a few minutes left in her afternoon break before she dials.

“Sara,” Leonard answers, and she can’t help the smile that pulls at her lips. 

“Leonard,” she mimics. “I’ll take the job, and I’ll sign the paperwork,” she says. “I already ran it by my boss, just to cover my ass, and I figure that’s what the paperwork is doing, too: covering our asses.”

The fact that she doesn’t really want anything covering their asses except maybe for bedsheets is an entirely different matter.

“Come in tomorrow,” he says, and she knows him well enough by now to hear the pleasure in his voice, even if it’s not obvious, “and we’ll get you started.”


	5. Makes My Heart Beat Fast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, remember I said this would be 15 chapters and an epilogue?
> 
> Yeah, I just replotted it out to include the rest of her pregnancy and also nods to s2 where possible, sooooo it’s now weighing in at 33 if I stick to the outline.
> 
> Whoops? Blame Tavyn and Claudiarain <3
> 
> Thanks too to SylvanHeather starting this chapter, who also read through for feedback. Assume these three lovely ladies are giving me general feedback, at minimum, going forward, unless otherwise stated.
> 
> Starting this week and until I run out of buffer (which is almost month at this point, if I stopped writing today), SIYE will update Tuesday and Fridays. There’s still roughly a week happening in/between each chapter until otherwise stated.
> 
> Content warning this chapter for some violence, but not even as much as we usually see in canon.

 

Sara yawns again. She’s been trying to get to bed at a decent time, but life gets in the way.

Okay, spending time with Leonard gets in the way.

They’ve been keeping to their agreement, keeping things platonic aside from some harmless flirting neither of them seems able to turn off. There’s also been an increase in solo activities starring Leonard as inspiration when she isn’t too tired, but he didn’t exactly seem to mind when she let that slip. Her cards are on the table, and taking the edge off can only help, right?

Only, it doesn’t really help. Every moment between them is still charged. They went out to the bar with Mick the night before—Sara stuck to club soda because alcohol just didn’t sound particularly appealing—nominally to celebrate her working with them, but they just sort of kept forgetting Mick was there.

It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy the other man’s company; she actually thinks they could get to be pretty good friends, too. It’s just that every cell in her body felt like it was being pulled toward Leonard, like every accidental touch set her ablaze.

Luckily, Mick didn’t take offense. He seemed tickled every time one of them blinked at him after he spoke. Still, she knows they need to work on that, especially since they’ll be working together.

Her first training job is today, and she’s spent five minutes trying to wake up enough to get out of her car. She needs to make it upstairs to his office to run back over the details, then back down and over to the location.

It really wasn’t the morning for her to realize she was out of coffee. She makes a note to grab some caffeine before heading to the job, if she has time, then takes a deep breath and gets out of the car.

As she makes her way to Leonard's office, she smiles at new coworkers who are already growing familiar. She waves at Felicity, who she’s found out is the tech wizard who got Leonard into her vault, then raps smartly on the office door.

“Come in,” Leonard calls. She walks in, finding Mick and Leonard already pouring over plans.

“Am I late?” she asks, glancing at the clock.

“No,” Mick answers. “Boss just wanted to get a head start since you’re the one going in.” There’s a slight edge to his voice, and Sara makes a note to ask Leonard about it when she gets a chance, but he doesn’t look upset, and his body language says she isn’t the target of his ire.

“We don’t usually let trainees go in on their own so early,” Leonard says, glaring mildly at Mick before looking at Sara, “so yes, I’d like to be a little more cautious than usual. Given your expertise and the ease of this part of the job, though, I don’t foresee any problems.”

There’s an empty chair next to Mick’s, a new addition to the room, and Sara sits in it and starts looking over the publically available information.

“You know what you’re doing today?” Leonard asks, and Sara nods.

“The target is a high-end department store,” Sara says, “with the main entrance on a busy street. They sell a lot of big ticket items, and they attract a lot of the type of clientele who can afford to pay in cash, so it’s high risk if there are any security holes. The owner wants to make sure she’s not gonna lose out on hard-earned money. I’m going in, with a camera and earpiece, to scope out the place before you actually attempt a job.”

Leonard nods, and Mick speaks. “Trickier than a lot of ‘em. Department store makes it near impossible to attempt anything without upsetting customers. Means what ends up happening is we only get as far as handing over a note that says we’re pretending to rob the joint. I see that and let security know it’s a test at that point, but they still have to get at least one armed guard in range before it’s been too long.”

They spend time pouring over plans and what parts of the store Sara needs to get on camera. She’s also testing alertness of security guards by acting suspect around some easier-to-lift items, with no actual intent to steal. Mick seems like himself, or at least the self she’s come to expect, so she dismisses the initial edge to his voice as imagined.

By the time Sara’s walking into the department store, she’s confident in the job, and she’s more excited about the work than she’s been in years. She only has half the coffee she picks up on her way, because she’s already humming with anticipation.

“Alright, Sara,” Leonard’s voice says in her ear, “video and audio are both good. Go ahead as planned.”

“Will do,” she says under her breath. She goes through the center of the store before making her way back around its edges, making sure she catches as much of the walls and ceilings on camera as possible. Occasionally, Leonard will give her more specific directions, things she missed, places he wants her to stop, things he could only have guessed at until he had eyes on. She quickly gets a feel for it, and she can hear the pleasure in his voice when she next stops.

“Precisely,” he tells her, and she waits a few more seconds before moving on. “Okay, you see those earrings over by the closest register? I want you to hang out over there. Fidget, look nervous.”

“Look like I want to take them,” she confirms before moving over to them.

They’re pretty, she admits, but not at all her style. They look like they would catch on her hair every two seconds. Besides, when she lifts one up, eyes darting around before she sets it back down, she sees that the price on it is about what she makes in a month, and she’s not exactly underpaid.

“Who would want these?” she mutters, and she hears Len chuckle. She almost breaks character with a returning grin, but her eyes are suddenly drawn to a man standing near the register.

He looks even more suspect than she’s trying to.

“You getting this?” she asks Leonard without taking her eyes off him.

“I am. I’m ready to alert police, and Felicity’s running facial recognition, though the hat’s making it tricky.” He pauses. “Get just a little closer if you can, but not too close. You don’t want to end up a hostage if this isn’t a false alarm.”

She moves a little closer and is positioning herself in front of a sock display when the man suddenly makes a move. He yanks down a ski mask, the edge of it only barely sticking out under his cap, which he knocks off in the process. It’s a quick move though, practiced, and his face is covered before anyone else knows what’s going on. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun, which he points immediately at the surprised cashier.

Sara takes a step closer when the cashier starts shaking and crying. The gunman isn’t reacting to her hysterics well, and he starts yelling. Sara has enough training that she thinks, even unarmed, she can take him down before anyone gets hurt.

“I know you have to help even though I’ve already alerted the police,” Leonard says, predicting her next move. His voice is controlled, if not quite calm, in her ear. “I know you’re able, too.”

Sara tenses as she waits for an opening, watches the unknown assailant wave his gun at the sobbing cashier.

“But you aren’t in charge here,” Leonard says. “I know at your bank you’d risk everything to foil a robbery, but head of security? That’s not you anymore, not here, not today. You’re here as my employee, and I’m telling you not to risk your life to save some cash.”

Sara internally rails against the order, but he’s right; she shouldn’t risk herself to stop the thief from getting away with his haul. She can and will, though, step in if it escalates any further, if it looks like anyone is about to get shot. Minutes pass, and she shuffles closer still when the man’s back is turned.

“Sara…” Leonard’s voice holds caution, not censure, like he can tell the compromise she’s settled on. She watches as the cashier starts handing over the money in the register, the gunman impatiently gesturing for her to go faster. “Detective West is in the building, Sara,” Leonard says, and something in her loosens to know she’s not only got backup, but backup she knows and trusts. “Hold on for just a few more seconds.”

And she tries, she really does, but the thief hears Detective West too early, and as the assailant spins toward someone she considers a friend, arm tense and finger on the trigger and face contorted in anger and fear, Sara finds she doesn’t really have a choice. She’s only a step away, and that’s all it takes to put herself in the path of his spinning arm, letting her grab the gun without ever being in its sights. It takes no effort to disarm him, and she steps back immediately, giving Joe a clean path to the man.

Sara can hear Leonard breathing hard enough for it to come over the microphone, but she doesn’t let herself talk to him until Joe has cuffed and unmasked the robber. “It’s over,” she says.

***

When Sara comes out of the building as he approaches it, she’s looking a just little rattled and entirely unharmed, and there’s very little that could keep Leonard from wrapping his arms around her. She doesn’t resist, instead melting into his embrace, leaning against him like she suddenly needs the help standing.

“You made the right call,” he murmurs into her hair, and she chuckles, finally lifting her own arms and wrapping them around his waist.

“I had some help.”

They stand like that until Detective West approaches, and then Leonard reluctantly lets go.

“We got all we needed from you, Sara,” West says before turning to Leonard, “but the video feed from her camera would help us when it comes time for prosecution. I assume you recorded it like usual?”

Leonard nods. “I’ll get that sent over as soon as I get back,” he says, and the detective nods and leaves.

Sara turns back to Leonard. “Do you need me back at the office?”

He frowns. He’s pretty sure she just means today, but after the experience her first time out, on a job that should’ve been safe, he has to ask: “Today, or ever?”

She looks at him like he should know better, and she’s probably right. “Today. I’ve still gotta run some errands before I call it quits for the day, and I was already tired. I know soon as the adrenaline finishes wearing off, I’m gonna be useless.”

“That’s fine,” he says. “We have what we need from the video, and we can have you sign the incident reports tomorrow after they’re ready.” He hesitates. “Do you need a ride?”

“I’ll be okay to drive,” she says. “You didn’t need to come down here at all… but I’m glad you did.”

He stares down at her and reminds himself they still have a few weeks before he’s allowed to give into his almost overpowering urge to kiss her. Hugs seem to be acceptable, though, so he pulls her into one last embrace before they part ways.

***

Alone in her apartment a couple hours later, Sara unpacks her groceries, putting away the coffee for morning and leaving out the beef so she can cook it for dinner. When she opens the meat, though, she wrinkles her nose; it’s definitely gone bad, despite looking fine. She tosses the meat, deciding it’s not worth a return trip to the store after the day she’s had. She’s not gonna keep spoiled meat around just to get back less than ten bucks. She grabs a box of macaroni and cheese for dinner instead, and a few minutes later, she’s curled up on her couch, wrapped in her softest bathrobe and watching Netflix.

She looks at her phone as she gets a text from Leonard.

_You okay? Want any company?_

She responds before she can talk herself out of it.

_Sure. Just watching tv but wouldn’t mind not being alone_

_You know where I live_ , she adds. _I’ll unlock the door, so come on in._

_I’m on my way_ , comes the almost immediate response. Sara smiles and gets up long enough to unlock the door before getting comfortable again. She starts eating, but her movements slow and her eyes grow heavy, and she falls asleep before her bowl is even half empty.

She’s dimly aware when Leonard comes in, managing a noise of acknowledgement when he calls her name from inside the door. She feels him lift her, and she snuggles into his neck until he sets her down in her bed, pulling the covers carefully over her. When she hears his footsteps leaving, she calls out without opening her eyes.

“Stay?”

He pauses, and she hears him come back over, feels his weight as he joins her on the bed.

“Go back to sleep, Sara,” he says, wrapping his arms around her.

And she does.


	6. Hope This Feeling Lasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drama this chapter, but amazingly, less than the episode that inspired it. Oliver is a bit overbearing, but he’s well-meaning, as usual.
> 
> This is my last short chapter; the next is like 3700 words and word count only increases from there.
> 
> Chapter proofed by Tavyn because I have a bad migraine and she’s like the best ever for helping me get this out on time.

Leonard knows he shouldn't have stayed, but there was no way he could deny her sleepy request. He can't protect her from everything, doesn't even want to, really, but if there was any way he could help after the day she had, after the day he inadvertently pushed her into, hell if anyone was gonna keep him from providing that help.

That it gave him an excuse to hold her, warm and secure in her bed, wasn't exactly a downside.

He had to leave before she woke in the morning, but he left her a note.

He may be in charge, but he can’t be late to work, especially with Mick annoyed with him. It’s not about Sara, not directly, but his long-time friend and coworker insists he’s changing. Leonard privately acknowledges that he might be, but that doesn’t mean the changes aren’t _good_.

He’s shaking things up at work, but it’s getting them noticed. They’re getting more demand lately than they can even keep up with.

And just because he isn’t alone every night doesn’t make him a different person, not really.

Despite the relatively good night’s sleep he got with Sara, by the time he gets to work, he’s on edge, already anticipating a fight, and he isn’t disappointed. Mick fights him left and right, arguing that they’re doing more than they set out to.

“Because of this chick, who’s probably too good for you anyway, we’re doing all this extra—”

“Don’t start, Mick.”

“—and that’s not what we set out to do. You said we’d make easy money doing the shit we learned when we were kids. We were supposed to have a good time, not work like they’re real jobs.”

“Enough, Mick.”

It continues through the week, but the new techniques, with more technology and varied manipulation, continue to bring in more clients.

Friday, Sara drops by unannounced, and he can’t help but smile; she’s been the bright point in his week, keeping him occupied in his limited downtime with texts or phonecalls. She’s been tired lately, and they haven’t really gone out this week given their work schedules, so seeing her is great.

“Hey,” she says, sitting across from him. She still looks tired, but she seems relaxed, and she’s smiling at him.

“Did you have lunch?” he asks, not wanting to pull out his own if she doesn’t have anything.

She shakes her head. “I might be fighting something. Don’t feel like I’m gonna be sick, just having trouble being hungry.” He suspects the mild concern shows on his face, because she smiles softly. “I’ll get checked out if I’m still feeling like this in a few days. There’s a bug going around the bank, but it’s just a 24-hour thing.”

Before he can respond, someone comes through the door. He’s never met Oliver Queen, but he recognises him, as would anyone who follows the news in this town. The man may have settled significantly over the past few years, but he’s still a regular on television.

He’s also recently requested–then demanded–that Leonard take a job for him.

Leonard hasn’t had a chance to tell Sara yet with the way the week has gone, but it looks like she’s about to find out.

“Oliver?” She stares at the intruder.

He’s heard about Oliver from Sara, and he’s pretty sure Felicity has something going on with the guy since she’s the one who handed him the initial request. It was her own lack of certainty in the process, though, that had made Leonard look closer.

The job wasn’t a good one. It threw up all sorts of red flags for Leonard. Mick disagreed, saying they should accept the job since it was more like their old ones, and it further fueled their arguments.

“Sara?” the man asks. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here sometimes,” she says. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“I’m trying to hire this man, and he keeps turning me down.”

“And what makes you think,” Leonard drawls, “that coming in person will get you a different result?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Oliver retorts. “My club is high profile, and I’d be paying you–well, I might add–to test out its security.”

“It breaks nearly every one of our protocols,” Leonard says, ticking off the points on his fingers and avoiding eye contact with Mick as the man comes and stands next to him. “It doesn’t involve theft or attempted theft. It involves making a scene that directly involves customers. It doesn’t involve brains, just strength and willingness to fight.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Mick grumbles, and Leonard pins him with a glare.

“We aren’t doing it,” he tells them both, his voice level.

“I’m gonna go,” Sara says, shaking her head at Oliver before standing and leaving. Oliver stares after her for a moment before turning back to Leonard.

“What if I paid you double?” he offers.

“No,” Leonard says coolly, reminding himself it’s because of the job, not the way the man looked at Sara.

“I’ll be back,” Oliver says impatiently, and he leaves the office.

“I can do the job without you,” Mick says the second they’re alone.

“No, you can’t,” Leonard shoots back.

“You’re not the boss of me,” Mick returns.

Leonard stands. “Actually, I am.”

Silence. Mick glares at him, and he stares coolly back, until the other man turns on his heel and storms out. After a few seconds, he hears Mick’s office door slam. Leonard sighs and sinks into his chair.

That is not exactly how he expected his afternoon to go.

***

Sara leaves, frustrated at Oliver for showing up, herself for abandoning the situation, Mick and Leonard for whatever tension is between them that wasn’t there before. She starts down the sidewalk toward her car when she hears Oliver’s voice.

“Sara, wait,” he calls from behind her, and Sara slows, not wanting to make a scene on the busy street.

“What, Oliver?”

He holds up his hands. “Look, I’m sorry. I just need to know Verdant is safe. There are too many people I care about who work there, and that guy’s the best at testing security.”

“So that makes it okay to harass him?” Sara crosses her arms, wincing as she inconveniently realizes her breasts are unusually tender, and immediately ignoring it to focus on her ex.

“No, it doesn’t, I just…” He looks at her, exasperated. “Are you with him?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Sara demands.

“He’s too cold,” Oliver says. “You need someone who cares.”

She clenches her teeth before forcing herself to relax, letting her arms drop to her sides. “Not everyone is you, Ollie. We were never right together, for so many reasons, and all the caring in the world couldn’t have fixed that.” Sara breathes. “Leonard _does_ care, and no, we aren’t actually together, but we’re probably headed that way, and he’s good for me, Ollie. He makes me happy, and he keeps me challenged, and he makes me feel safer than I’ve ever been in my life.”

Oliver shoves his hands in his pocket, studying her, then nods and looks away. “I’m sorry. I was an ass.”

“Not like it was the first time,” she says, but there’s no real heat in it. She’s too tired to fight, too tired and sore, and this whole encounter has put her stomach on edge, and…

Oh. _Oh_.

“I’ve gotta go,” she mumbles, turning back around. “Don’t follow me.”

He doesn’t, at least as far as Sara can tell, but she’s more than a little distracted as she makes her way to a drugstore near where she parked. She can’t fully process what she suspects until she’s standing right in front of the family planning section.

She’s late. She isn’t just a couple days late, either, which happens sometimes, but at least a week.

She’s late, and she’s exhausted, and her breasts have never hurt this much from just a normal period. Her stomach’s been off at random times, and she’s eaten more mac and cheese than any adult human should in the past two weeks.

She stares at the pregnancy tests on the top shelf, but she has to shake her head so she can focus.

Why are there so many? They all do the same thing, even boast the same accuracy. There are ones that show lines, smiley faces, or actually say “pregnant” or “not pregnant.” There’s even one that claims to have an app it connects to on her phone, and she rules that one out immediately, because she’s pretty sure she has no desire to pee on something with Bluetooth built in.

She reaches for one that isn’t too cheesy looking and will just display a yes or no. It’s all she needs, after all, an answer to whether she’s pregnant.

Yes or no.

She grabs another box of macaroni and cheese before checking out, and the cashier, not much older than Sara, smiles fondly.

“I couldn’t eat stuff with much flavor,” she says, putting first the test, then the pasta in the bag, “unless it was lemon. Lemon was the only thing I could keep down some days.”

Sara smiles weakly. “I’ll remember that.”

She escapes, driving home as quickly as she safely can, giving silent thanks that she doesn’t have to go back to work today since the bank is closed. She tears open the box, hands shaking, and reads the instructions. She takes the test to the bathroom, uses it, washes her hands, and waits.

Three minutes isn’t that long. It’s not even enough time to get through some commercial breaks. Sara’s pretty sure, though, that three minutes has never been so long in her life.

It gives her time to think, at least, which she realizes she hasn’t really done yet, not beyond picking out one of the tests.

She could be pregnant, and that goes pretty far beyond a basic yes or no. She wasn’t planning on having a baby any time soon. It’s not that she objects to the idea in general, just that it’s not something she’s ever actively craved. She doesn’t really want to be a single parent—how many people actually do?—and she hasn’t been in the type of relationship that is conducive to thoughts of the future.

With Leonard, though, her mind went immediately to their future, didn’t it? Oh, not to the level of detail that elicits picket fences and chubby cherub cheeks, but still, the very first night, she knew they could really be something. It’s what drove her into the whole deal with waiting four weeks, to avoid screwing them up one way or another.

It was supposed to be simple. Yeah, maybe they shouldn’t have slept together so soon, but it felt right, and they put into place what they needed, a nice, simple plan that should have ensured everything went smoothly if they chose to make the leap from friends to lovers in a more official way.

They still have almost two weeks until her deadline is up, and now she might be throwing an enormous wrench into their plans. She glares at her pack of birth control pills, which she’s continued to take on time.

At least it’s Leonard, though.

For the same reason she can see a future with him, the fact that this hypothetical child is _his_ makes things better. She thinks they can get through, can make it work, can become a family, even if it might be a little dysfunctional based on the circumstances.

But what if she’s wrong? What if she loses him over this, false alarm or not? Maybe she’s only known him for six weeks, but he’s already changed her life, and she’s changed his, and while she knows she’ll be okay, even if there’s a baby involved, she doesn’t want to go back to being alone.

She doesn’t want to do this without him.

Her timer beeps gently at her, and she silences it. Sara takes a deep breath and looks down at the piece of plastic that seems much too small to change her life, but there are three little letters, so much clearer than counting lines.

_YES_

She closes her eyes, thinking again about the man who’s the other half of this equation and how things were supposed to be simple, how complicated things will be from here on out.

“Shit,” she says. “Shit, shit, shit.”


	7. The Rest of My Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continued thanks to the amazing ladies who tell me this doesn’t suck (they use much nicer words than this).
> 
> This is a big chapter!

 

Sara’s hand rests on her stomach as she looks at the training facility.

It’s been several days, and she still can’t wrap her mind around the fact that there’s a baby inside there, of her and Leonard’s making.

She hasn’t told anyone yet, including Leonard, and she hasn’t gone to see the doctor. She did, though, take another two tests, both of which confirmed the pregnancy.

She wants to tell Leonard in person, but their work schedules haven’t been lining up, and it’s not something she just wants to spill over a lunch break. She’s avoided telling anyone or doing anything that’ll make it obvious because she refuses to make it possible for him to hear it from anyone but her.

Now, there’s some training exercise, mandatory for anyone who works in Leonard’s department. She can’t leave today, she decides, without telling him, regardless of the fact their time might be limited.

The training won't include anything that puts her at risk; there’s no combat, no firearms, just simple evasion of cameras and the like, so she doesn’t have to tell him beforehand.

She just has to tell him.  Hopefully, they’ll get a chance to be alone so she can.

Her eyes are drawn to him immediately when she enters the lobby of the building. He's surrounded by his employees, and even though she isn't late, she _is_ the last to show. When he sees her, he nods. He doesn't quite smile, but there's a softening of his features that sets butterflies alight in Sara’s stomach.

Of course, that reminds her of what's _actually_ happening near her stomach, and the nerves come back full force. He quirks an eyebrow at her, then starts speaking.

“The trainees will go through the course first,” he says, gesturing to Ray and Sara. “I will shadow them, not helping, just following along so I can see better than the cameras allow. Then the rest of you will go, first solo, then in random pairs.

“The goal is simply to avoid detection. We already know who needs to work on looking inconspicuous around others.” He pauses on Ray for only a moment. “Now, I need to see how you handle an after-hours robbery, since we've been getting more requests for those lately.

“Raymond,” he says. “You're up first. The rest of you can have a seat.”

As Leonard and Ray make their way to where the course is located, Sara sinks into a chair, barely registering when Mick sits next to her.

“Never seen Snart act like how he does with you,” he says, voice pitched low enough that nobody should overhear.

“Is that a bad thing?” she asks, genuinely wanting to hear his opinion; despite technically being an employee, Mick is also Len’s best friend.

Mick grunts. “Can't really say. He doesn't let people in on account of his dad. You know about him?”

Sara’s heard enough—seen enough their night together—that she nods. “I know he was an abusive jackass until he died in an actual heist gone wrong.”

“Nobody really knows that except me and Lisa.” Mick frowns. “Guess what I'm tryin’ to say is, he's made it so you can hurt him. Even if I'm pissed at him lately, I don't wanna see that happen.”

“I'm not planning on it,” she says softly, resisting the urge to put her hand to her abdomen again.

She has no way of knowing what the news is going to do to him. She's barely started wrapping her mind around what it's doing to _her_.

“Why are you upset with him?” she asks, and Mick snorts.

“Shit like this. He's taking work too serious lately. Supposed to be fun.”

Before Sara can respond, Leonard and Ray reappear, and Leonard gestures for her to join them.

“That was fast,” she comments as she reaches them.

“Shouldn't be hard,” Leonard says.

“I got it the second try,” Ray mutters, and Leonard nods.

“You'll get it the first try next time.” He turns to Sara. “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

He studies her for a second, clearly seeing her hesitation, but leads her down the hallway to the large training course.

She shouldn't tell him on the course, right? But they'll actually be alone, and she's not sure she can handle waiting until today's training is over. The news is pressing at her, begging to escape.

***

Leonard can tell Sara is distracted, but he’s trying to remain professional until she’s finished the course, so he refrains from asking what’s wrong.

Speaking to Sara is much too easy and much too likely to end with them both distracted, and he really needs to focus, at least until she’s done. He’ll be able to monitor—or ideally, _not_ monitor—his more experienced crew from the cameras, but he likes to be more hands on with the trainees.

Of course, he’d like to be _very_ hands on with Sara, but again, that’s not really appropriate. They’ve only got a week left of her waiting period, and he doesn’t quite want to admit to himself how ready he is for that to be over, to see what more they can be, to see whether that one explosive night was a fluke.

He doesn’t expect it to be.

_Focus, Snart_.

He and Sara have reached the start of the course. He hands her an earpiece and a tool set.

“Felicity is on the other end of the comm,” he says. “She can’t give you any hints, but if you ask her directly to turn off a specific camera, she will. It’s your job to spot it first. Avoid the cameras instead if at all possible; Felicity can only disable three for the whole course.”

Sara still looks distracted, and Leonard gently takes her arm before he can think better of it.

“Sara,” he says, and she looks up at him, her eyes bright like she’s about to cry. “You’re alright. You’re not expected to do a perfect job. This wasn’t Raymond’s first time, and it still took him two tries.”

“I’m not worried about the course,” she says. She swallows and breaks eye contact, and Leonard frowns. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

He’ll have to ask her what’s wrong after they’re done; she’s already started forward into the course. He stays close, not near enough to hinder movement or be distracting, but close enough to see exactly where she steps and how she moves, what her eyes pick up on. She does beautifully, asking Felicity to turn off the right cameras, getting past locks with more ease than he expects.

“You’ve been practicing,” he murmurs, eliciting an actual grin from her that eases some of his worry. She focuses back on the task, and then they’re inside the vault. Leonard doesn’t really think anything of the unusual click as the door closes behind them, not until Sara tries to open it again.

“It’s stuck,” she says.

Leonard tries the door himself. “It should always open from the inside.” He jiggles the handle a few more times, but it doesn’t budge. “Felicity,” he sends over his comm.

“Already on it,” she replies calmly. “Mick’s on his way in to get it from the outside.”

Leonard looks at Sara. “It won’t count against you if the course malfunctioned,” he says.

She smiles weakly up at him. “Good to know.” Her smile drops, and she opens her mouth like she’s going to say something, then closes it.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, giving in to the urge, toggling the comms so Felicity can only hear them on demand. The vault door is thick enough to block any sound. They have a few minutes of privacy.

She opens and closes her mouth again, then shakes her head. “This shouldn’t take long, right?”

“We have six people out there trained in breaking in,” he says. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Okay.” She falls quiet again, but she’s watching him, and he watches her in return. He’s never seen her look so unsure. He wants to reach for her, wants to break all their rules and fix whatever’s wrong, the same as he’s always done for Lisa.

The moment stretches out, but neither of them moves or speaks until Felicity comes over their headsets.

“I’m patching Mick through,” she says, her voice a little too cheery.

“Hey, boss,” comes Mick’s gruff voice. “Lock’s broke. Think maybe we forced it a little too often. We’re gonna have to either take out the lock or take the door off entirely. Could be a few hours.”

Sara’s eyes widen. “So much for not taking long.”

***

Sara can’t handle standing there with Leonard looking at her with all that concern any longer, so she moves to the back of the vault and sits on the floor, her back against the wall. Leonard joins her, sitting just a couple inches away.

It’s only too close because she desperately wants to lean on him and just pretend this whole week never happened.

She rubs her arms. It’s a little chilly in the vault, not quite uncomfortably so, but she doesn’t think she’ll be able to get warm, either. It’s quiet, the silence between them bordering on uncomfortable for the first time, and Sara’s struggling not to think they’re already broken when Leonard starts talking, his calm, even tone instantly letting her breathe again.

“You and Mick were talking while Raymond did the course. Mick has been displeased with me lately.”

“I noticed,” she says. “He said as much, too.”

“Did he?” he asks rhetorically. “Have I told you how we met?”

Sara shakes her head, then watches him as he speaks.

“My father was trying to force me to run a job with him. Didn’t matter to him I was still just a kid. I ran off, after we were out of the house so he couldn’t take it out on Lisa, but it was a bad part of town. I got cornered in an alley. Would’ve ended up in the hospital at best, but Mick stepped in. He was big even then, and he wouldn’t let them touch me.” Leonard turns and looks at Sara. “Kept protecting me. Lisa, too, once things got bad enough; we got out after dear old Dad tried to bring her in on the family business. Was the three of us on our own for years, so when it came time to get a real job, it was a given he’d join me.”

“It’s good to have someone like that,” she says. It doesn’t make up for that kind of childhood, she knows, but at least he wasn’t alone.

Leonard nods. “So we’ll get past this, one way or another, even if we have to beat each other into agreement.” He smirks, and then his expression grows serious, his eyes dark as they dart toward her lips.

She needs to tell him. She needs to tell him now.

He starts speaking. “About next week—”

“I’m pregnant,” she blurts, interrupting him before she can change her mind. “It’s yours,” she adds, not sure she can handle it if he asks. It’s not like they’ve had a discussion about exclusivity; it was supposed to be just one night, no strings, no romantic relationship for at least another week.

“You're…”

Sara nods. “My birth control has a really low failure rate, but apparently, it wasn't low enough.”

***

His mind is reeling.

_Pregnant_. And it's his.

“I've known for a few days,” Sara’s saying. “I haven't… I haven't told anyone or made any solid plans. I know there's a lot we need to do. I'll be making an appointment to confirm it, but I took three tests, so I…”

She rests her hand on her stomach, and his eyes follow the movement. There's a child growing there. _His_ child.

“If you won't or can't help,” Sara says, and his eyes snap to hers, “I have decent savings and I make enough, so we'll be okay, I just—”

“No,” he says, realizing what she's saying, that he’s been quiet too long. “I want to. I will. I just need a minute.”

She smiles wryly. “I get that. I still need some time, too.”

They fall quiet, and he sees her shiver, and his jacket is off his shoulders and on hers before he can even consider it. She smiles up at him, a little more genuine this time, and slips her arms into the garment.

“Thanks.” She looks down at her hands, nearly swallowed by his sleeves.

The silence stretches out. They probably have another hour, at least, before the team gets the doors open.

Pregnant.

“I've told you about Lisa,” he says, looking away, “but I haven't told you I practically raised her, even before we left with Mick. Our mother was gone, left when I was so young I can barely remember her, but there was Lisa, so small. Even that young, I knew my father wasn't about to be the one to take care of her, so I did.”

He swallows. “I never really thought I'd get a chance to raise a child who's actually mine.” He sees her look up at him, and he turns to her. He reaches out a hand, hesitating before he touches her. “Can I…”

Sara takes his hand and places it on her stomach, and while it feels no different than it did their night together, not to the touch, he knows everything has changed.

She scoots closer to him and loops her hands around his arm, resting her head on his shoulder. He looks to her, then back to where his hand rests over her abdomen.

“I might screw up,” he says, and though her eyes have fluttered shut, he can feel she's listening. “I might do everything wrong when it comes to you, when it comes to”—his breath stutters—“the baby. But I won't leave you, either of you. I'll help however I can.”

They'll have to work out the details of that, be knows, and he desperately needs some time to himself to think about everything, but he's certain of what he's said.

This child will be theirs and will know love, as much as they can give.

She stays quiet. He thinks she’s giving him time to think at first, but her breath evens out after a few minutes, Sara falling asleep against him.

As he told her, he never really expected to be a father, not officially. He already did that with Lisa, and he never thought he’d open up with someone, click with someone well enough to even consider having a child. He’s not exactly young anymore, and he figured his time was past.

But she’s pregnant.

And it’s Sara.

It makes an even bigger difference than he thought, he realizes, that she’s the one carrying his child. With a stranger, this would be a nightmare, and while it’s not exactly an ideal, the fact that it’s Sara changes everything.

He can see it, now that he’s begun to wrap his mind around the bare facts. He can see them, Sara, holding a baby, _their_ baby, him soothing it to sleep while she watches.

He swallows, overwhelmed by the unexpected rush of emotion.

It’s a lot to take in, and he suspects he won’t even be entirely ready in the time it takes the kid the get here, but he wants this, with her. Maybe the timing could be better, but it didn’t happen a few years down the road. It’s happening now, and they’re both along for the ride.

He’s still deep in thought when the crew finally gets the doors off, and Leonard’s glad they weren’t entirely accurate in their design of the vault since that might’ve been otherwise impossible. Mick sees them, Sara stirring against his arm, and the man’s eyes drop to where Leonard’s hand still rests on her stomach.

Leonard pulls away slowly, reluctantly, and when Mick meets his eyes again, he hardens, silently warning him not to say anything. Leonard helps Sara to her feet, meeting her gaze before he lets go. She still looks a little uncertain, but some of her characteristic confidence has crept back in, and she manages a smile.

They leave the vault, training cancelled for the day, and Leonard’s attention has to shift to repairs. Sara approaches him as the team disperses.

“I’ll let you know when I have an appointment,” she says quietly, and he nods, then watches her walk away, still wearing his jacket.

Mick’s voice is somehow both annoyed and concerned when he speaks a minute later. “Everything alright?” he asks, nodding in the direction Sara left.

“It will be,” Leonard answers, forcing his attention to his task, saving further thoughts of the future for when he’s alone.

***

He intends to take some time alone to think about everything.

He means to give Sara time to do the same.

Yet somehow, Leonard ends up standing in front of her apartment door that night instead of his own, takeout baked mac and cheese in hand.

“Leonard,” she says, surprise obvious when she opens the door and searches his eyes. Her attention is dragged to his bags before he can respond. “Oh God, that smells amazing. Come in.”

She takes the food from his hands and brings it to her counter, and he follows her inside, not bothering to stop the smile that tugs at his lips when she’s already opening the baked macaroni. Sara notices, and she huffs.

“I haven’t really been hungry lately, but I can eat mac and cheese.”

“I’ve noticed,” he says. At her confused expression as she rifles through a drawer for utensils, he reminds her, “We text every night. That’s all you’ve had this week.”

“Right.” She hands him a spoon, and he rescues his soup from the abandoned bag before following her to her couch, where she’s already digging in. “Sorry,” she says, and he shakes his head.

“Seems I had a bit to do with it.”

Between bites, Sara nibbles her lip, giving him a once-over that makes his mouth go dry. His part in this so far was a side effect of something he’s increasingly desperate to repeat.

There are things that take priority, though.

“Any other symptoms so far?” he asks.

“I’m tired,” she answers immediately, “like all the time. And I’m pretty tender,” she adds, gesturing to her chest, and they’re talking about pregnancy symptoms, and he’s a grown man who shouldn’t be so easily distracted, but it still takes him a moment to return his attention to her face.

Sara’s smirking. She looks back down at her food, which, despite her apparent hunger, she’s barely touched. She sighs and sets it on the coffee table, then studies him.

“If you’re here,” she says, “we have things we should probably talk about. Do you want to start with us, or the kid?”

“Let’s start with us,” he says. Despite everything, the two of them can’t possibly be as complicated as the logistics of raising a child.

“Okay.” Sara turns so she’s facing him, tucking her legs under her. “I think we should still wait this last week,” she says.

“Why is that?” He manages to keep any disappointment from his voice; he’s not about to pressure her if she isn't ready, especially now.

She takes a breath. “Partly for the original reasons. I know that we’ve hit some complications that make the whole thing harder, but it’s almost more important now, you know? I want to make sure we aren’t jumping in just because it might be easier to raise a kid that way.” He nods slowly, and she continues. “Also, I figured that gives us a week to figure out as much of the kid stuff as we can.”

“Seems fair,” he says, and she looks relieved before she blows out a breath.

“A _kid_ , Leonard. Where the hell do we even start with that? There’s so much.” She gestures around the room. “I have one bedroom, and it’s not big enough to fit a crib with my bed. Money’s not really a problem, at least, but there’s… When do we tell everyone? Do we move in together or figure out some sort of custody thing? How long can I work if I’m pregnant, given what we do? There’s so much that I don’t know, I can’t even remember what I don’t know!”

She’s almost yelling by the end, and her eyes are damp, and he doesn’t really think about it before pulling her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her. She doesn’t resist, melting against him as she had after the robbery.

She took on an armed gunman while pregnant. Shit. He holds her closer, hoping she doesn’t realize that any time soon, if ever.

“We’ll figure everything out,” he says. “We have time.”

“How are you so calm?” she mumbles into his chest.

He chuckles. “I’m not. But I know that when something big happens like this, it’s best to deal with one thing at a time. Planning is something I’m good at, and while raising a baby isn’t exactly planning a heist, I’m fairly confident we’ll be fine.”

And he is, he decides when she laughs against him. This might not be easy, but they’ll make it work.

Maybe they’ll even be good at it, despite everything.

As he told Sara, though, one thing at a time.

She falls asleep in his arms a few minutes later, mid-sentence in a story about the one time she tried to babysit, and he moves her to bed, once more joining her at her request. He retrieves his jacket the next morning.

Over the next few days, over text and on the phone and in person, they start to answer their questions.

He’ll go to as many of her appointments as he can manage. They’ll tell people after their 12-week appointment, unless it’s obvious before then. She’ll move into his apartment, at least when the baby is first born. She’ll either take the spare room, which will double as the nursery, or she’ll sleep with him.

He hopes it’s the latter.

They even jokingly discuss a few names, quickly ruling out any of the trendy celebrity names.

“You don’t want a boy named Sparsh Snart?” Sara teases after checking out a list of unusual names.

He smirks and proposes Lady Lance instead.

It’s all coming together much too smoothly, and a part of Leonard worries that things are going to fall apart, but somehow, and maybe it’s Sara’s ability to run headlong into doing whatever is _right_ , he trusts that everything really and truly will be okay.


	8. How Lonely my Life has Been

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some medical exams this chapter, but I made them as not-awkward as possible while still being mostly accurate.
> 
> Also, later chapter NSFW.
> 
> Basically assume NSFW almost every chapter for a while. Blame Tavyn ;)

“I’ll be back, Mick,” Leonard says, standing at Mick’s office door.

“What’s with you this week?” Mick mutters, and Leonard glances at his watch before walking into the office. “You’ve been distracted, and now you’re leaving in the middle of the day.”

“I said I’d be back. We’ve got nothing scheduled for today.” He made sure of that as soon as Sara gave him the date.

Things have still been tense between him and Mick, but he’s been pushing it off, because as much as he knows he needs to make things right, he has other priorities at the moment. He knows he’s fucking up with Mick; he can’t fuck up with Sara, too.

“It’s Sara, isn’t it,” Mick says. “You leaving work to get a quickie?”

Leonard’s jaw tightens. “Neither I nor Sara would blow off work for sex, and you know that.”

“So it _is_ her, just not for sex,” Mick prods, and Leonard turns.

“I’ll be back when I can. You know how to handle it if anything comes up.” He leaves before Mick can say more, using the elevator ride to the garage to cool off.

He doesn’t quite manage it before he gets in his car, so he takes another minute. Everything with Sara has been good, it really has, but that doesn’t mean it’s not stressful.

There’s a child on the way, and he remembers how much work they are, only this time he’s even more responsible for finances than he was with Lisa. He did, at least, take over the budgeting and income once they moved out—it’s what first earned him the title “boss” from Mick—so he has an idea of how much he and Sara are looking forward to, and yet, the more research he does, the more research he finds he needs.

It’s also another person he’ll have to let in, and it cements the fact that Sara is in his life, one way or another. This tiny being is the size of a blueberry and already changing the course of his entire future.

But the pregnancy wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t already been letting Sara in, already changing his life to accommodate her, and now he’s getting ready to join her at the doctor in order to check in on their child. Leonard loosens his grip on the steering wheel, and he leaves the parking garage so he can join Sara.

***

Leonard’s rational approach has helped Sara maintain her own, and she gets through the week with minimal panic, something she finds truly amazing given the situation.

Now, though, waiting in the office of the ob/gyn, surrounded by posters of children and pregnant women, surrounded by _actual_ children and pregnant women, she feels her calm start to fade.

There’s an actual person growing inside her, and she’s going to be responsible for everything about it. She has help, yes, and she knows she’s lucky there, but for nine months, she’s the only one who can interact directly with it—with him or her—no matter how much others want to help. How well it grows is entirely on her, and she can’t even keep a plant alive, and how is she going to do this?

She’s reconsidering waiting to tell anyone, because even though things are sometimes strained between them, she could really go for a talk with her sister about now.

The nurse calls her name, interrupting her thoughts. Sara stands, glancing at her phone, and sees she has a text from Leonard.

_I’m hitting every damned red light in Central. Be there ASAP, minutes out._

She walks over to the nurse. “My…” As much as they are to each other, Sara and Leonard don’t actually have a title, she realizes. “The father’s almost here.”

The nurse smiles kindly. “It’s not terribly uncommon for partners to run late. If he talks to the front desk, they’ll let him through.” She glances at the clipboard she’s holding. “You listed him on your paperwork, so he’ll be fine. Let’s head on back.”

Sara follows her to a little exam room.

“Sit where you want for right now,” the nurse says. “We’ll go over a few questions, and I’ll let you know what to expect, and then you can get changed for the exam and ultrasound.”

Sara perches on the edge of the exam table and answers the nurse’s—Lindsey’s—questions about her medical history, period, and sexual activity.

“Knowing the date of conception simplifies things,” Lindsey comments.

Sara huffs. “Something good about giving in before I meant to, at least.”

“Playing hard to get?” Lindsey asks, and there’s just a hint of interest in her voice that goes beyond professional. For some reason, the mild flirtation helps Sara relax.

“Not really. I just wasn’t ready to risk what we had. Didn’t want anything to change.”

Lindsey pauses before coming to stand by Sara’s side. “You looked a little overwhelmed in the waiting room. It’s a lot, even for women who’ve been pregnant already and who are in established relationships.” She smiles. “But you’ll be okay. I can tell. I’ve got good instincts.”

Sara returns the smile gratefully. There’s a soft rap on the door, which opens to reveal Leonard, and she relaxes further, waving him over. He takes a spot on her other side, hesitating only a second before taking her hand.

“Sorry I’m late,” he murmurs.

“It’s okay,” Sara says. “You didn’t really miss anything.”

Lindsey retrieves a medical gown and a blue sheet from one of the drawers, and they’re warm when she hands them to Sara.

“You can go ahead and change. Dr. Snow will be in shortly to give you an exam and then perform your first ultrasound so we can check on size and initial development.” Lindsey pauses, looking to Leonard and then back at Sara. “Not everyone wants an audience for the internal exam, and with how far along you are, the ultrasound will be transvaginal as well.”

Sara looks at Leonard, considering. Yearly exams can get awkward enough when it’s only her and the doctor, but she doesn’t want to tell him he can’t see the ultrasound. “Maybe you could wait outside for the exam?” she suggests. “And then for the ultrasound, just don’t pay too much attention down there.”

He nods, face carefully blank. “I’ll go ahead and wait out in the hall, then.” He seems to see the nerves trying to creep back in, and his expression softens before he leans to kiss her forehead. “See you in a few minutes.”

He leaves, and Lindsey gives her a few more instructions, letting her know she only needs to strip from the waist down, before giving her some privacy. Sara keeps her mind as empty as she can while changing, doing her best not to be worried, and she’s only been changed for a minute when there’s a polite knock at the door.

“Hello,” the woman greets warmly as she enters the room. “I’m Dr. Snow, but you can call me Caitlin. We’ll get to know each other pretty well over the next several months.”

The doctor confirms much of the information Lindsey collected, starting the exam while they’re still talking. Her clear comfort with the whole procedure helps Sara keep calm, and before she knows it, the doctor is opening the door to let Leonard in. He stands so he can see her face and the screen, the sheet blocking what’s happening at the doctor’s end of things.

“Okay, Sara, you’ll feel a bit of pressure here,” Caitlin says. When Sara makes a face, Leonard takes her hand again. She turns to look at him, and he’s watching the monitor. His expression is serious as he waits, and she wonders whether he’ll be like this for the delivery, or whether he’ll be calm and supportive, or worried and tense. It takes her a moment to realize she hasn’t even a trace of doubt that he’ll be there, no matter his emotional state.

“There we go,” Caitlin says, and Sara turns to the monitor. There’s a little blob that’s just barely humanoid, a spot pulsing near its center. “That’s the heartbeat,” the doctor explains, and Sara feels her own heart race even as Leonard holds her hand tighter.

Maybe it isn’t much to look at, but being able to see it makes everything so much more real.

“Measuring at six weeks, three days, which puts you at a month past conception. That lines up with the dates you gave me, and it puts your estimated due date at November 3rd.”

She can’t bring herself to look away, not even when Leonard brings her hand to his lips, maintaining contact and that firm grip, like he needs the support as much as she does.

“Everything looks great,” Caitlin says after a couple minutes of silence, and she pulls the wand away, the screen going dark. “I’ll print you a picture,” she says, pressing a few buttons, and then there’s a whirring noise. “Any questions before I let you out of here?”

Sara blinks and turns her attention to the doctor. “Any physical restrictions? I work out a lot to stay in shape for my job. Is that safe?”

Dr. Snow consults her chart. “There’s nothing in your history that would indicate it isn’t safe,” she says. “Usually as long as you don’t increase what you were doing before, there’s no problem. Low-impact exercises are preferable, and if there’s any cramping or spotting, stop and call us, especially if it’s severe, but I don’t see any reason to expect any problems. You’re healthy, and the baby looks good.”

Sara nods, and she’s almost in a daze looking down at the photo the doctor hands her. She’s left alone again to change, Leonard squeezing her hand one last time before he goes. When she joins him in the hallway, he immediately wraps her in an embrace. With an unsteady breath, Sara relaxes into his arms.

***

Leonard keeps his breath steady as she leans against him.

He thought he was prepared. As he told himself so many times this week, he already pretty much raised Lisa, and he didn’t think this would be so very different.

He was wrong. Just seeing the fragile heartbeat on the screen, seeing proof of the life he and Sara created, the life she was growing inside her, was almost too much. He’d been entirely unprepared for how much things would change, until they did.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” he says quietly after a minute. He takes her hand as they leave, not quite ready to lose contact, and he’s grateful when she doesn’t pull away. He’s still not ready when they get to her car, and even that is unusual for him, the active desire for contact outside of a sexual context, but at this point, he’s about ready to give up on anything ever being how he expects with Sara.

He looks down at her, and she watches him for a second before looking at the photo in her hand.

“I know we didn’t mean to,” she says, “but we _made_ this, Leonard.” She takes a deep breath and exhales, looking a little more herself and a little less shell-shocked when she looks back up at him. “It makes it feel so much more real.”

He nods, not quite able to speak. What he wants to do is kiss her, show her exactly how he feels, how overwhelmed and grateful and terrified he is, but they aren’t doing that yet, and—

“Leonard?” Sara interrupts his thoughts, and she’s lowered the photo, looking up at him with an expression he’s come to recognize, one that triggers an immediate response in him despite the turbulent emotions. Her voice is husky when she continues. “It’s been four weeks,” she says.

Four weeks. It takes him a second to process what she’s saying, and then his lips are on hers even though he can’t remember moving, and he’s pouring everything he can into the contact. Her body is flush with his, and he pulls her even closer, stroking her tongue with his, pulling back just far enough to suck on her bottom lip. He inhales when she returns the gesture, her teeth scraping gently before she slows the kiss and lets her heels touch the ground again, taking her out of easy reach.

“I have to get back to work,” she breathes, and Leonard nods.

It’s only the fact that he just told Mick they wouldn’t blow off work for sex that keeps him from suggesting they go back to his place instead.

“So do I.” He dips his head to kiss her once more, this one brief and bordering on chaste. “My place after work?”

Sara nods, a knowing, anticipatory smile playing at her lips. “I’ll bring the mac and cheese this time.”

He chuckles and kisses her again before forcing himself to let go. He watches as she gets in her car, then steps away so she can back out of her space. As he heads to his own car, he’s glad he’s already accepted how different everything is with Sara.

If he tried to treat her like anyone else, he’d be even more screwed than he already is.

***

Sara’s almost uncomfortably aroused by the time she finally shows up at Leonard’s. Her thoughts have alternated all day between what they shared at the doctor’s office and what they’ll share tonight, and every time she remembers exactly how they got in this position in the first place, how his lips felt against hers, how his fingers lingered as he touched her, how he felt inside her, warm and hard and so incredibly perfect…

She’s not honestly sure how she got through the rest of her work day.

He opens the door, his eyes dark, and even though her hands are full, she kisses him before she goes inside. She can feel his eyes on her as she sets her things down in the kitchen. He starts getting out what they need to eat, but he’s keeping a respectable distance, and she doesn’t like it.

Sara stops him before he can take anything to the couch, catching his wrist and kissing him the way she’s wanted to all day. He returns it for a few seconds before gently pulling away, his hand resting at her waist.

“You need to eat first,” he says.

“We can eat afterward,” she complains, only half joking. Maybe a little less than half.

He smirks and shakes his head, and he moves his hand from her waist to her stomach, his eyes intense. “You need to eat,” he repeats. “We’ve got all night.”

She exhales, his proximity and that look in his eyes doing very little to help curb her desires. “Fine.” She moves to grab her food and pauses, reaching into her purse instead and pulling out the ultrasound photo. Sara isn’t supposed to move in for at least a few more months, possibly not until right before the baby’s born, but she’s only got one copy of this and doesn’t really want to keep it in her bag. “I thought it made sense to keep this here,” she tells Leonard, who’s watching her curiously.

He nods, taking it from her carefully and bringing it over to the bookshelf, where he leans it against one of the photos of himself and Lisa. She comes up beside him, taking his hand as he stares at the tiny blob— _their_ tiny blob.

After a minute or so, Leonard looks down at her again. “We should eat,” he says, and Sara laughs before finally going and taking her food to the couch.

“Are you gonna be like this the whole time I’m pregnant?” she asks.

“Probably,” he answers.

Food and talk about the baby takes her mind briefly off of sex, but only briefly. She doesn’t really think anyone could blame her; he’s watching her with that same intense expression, like if he blinks, she’ll disappear, and there’s so much heat in it that she feels like she’s going to combust.

“Okay, satisfied?” she asks finally, setting her mostly-empty dish on the coffee table. It’s actually the most she’s managed to eat in a while.

“Not yet,” he says, his voice ridiculously low as his dish joins hers. He stands and offers her a hand, kissing her as soon as she’s up, setting a slow and sensual pace. Sara matches it, just barely containing a whimper, and he grins against her lips.

Her hand still in his, he leads her to his room, and they stop at the foot of his bed. He steps back and shrugs out of his jacket—the one he's almost always wearing—without taking his eyes off her. He sets it on the nearby dresser, and his shirt follows, leaving him in undershirt and jeans. He steps forward again, kissing her before slipping her shirt over her head. He runs his hands along her sides, and she shoves her own hands under his shirt, needing the contact.

She pulls away, impatient again, pulling at his shirt until he takes it off, then ditching her bra, wincing when she remembers how tender she is.

“Slow down,” Leonard says, kissing her again, thoroughly, lingering, careful in his movements as he lets his chest press against hers, and okay, maybe slow is good.

She lets him lead, lets him finish undressing them both, lets him guide her up onto the bed with gentle pressure at her waist. He climbs over her, and for long minutes, all they do is kiss, skin against skin, his erection resting heavily against her.

He shifts, finally, and she widens her legs, more than ready for him, but he seems to have other ideas. He kisses her jawline, then her neck, her collarbone. He moves lower, stroking her over-sensitive breasts almost too gently before he gets his mouth involved, lips and tongue adding moisture and delicious friction until she's damned near an orgasm and he hasn't even properly touched her yet.

“Len,” she breathes, and he moves lower, pressing a kiss to her ribs before pausing over her stomach. He kisses her just below her bellybutton, almost reverently, and Sara’s sure she’s never felt so cherished during sex.

Then he moves even lower, and she’s no longer capable of thought, just experience. She’s sensitive there, too, and every touch of his lips, his tongue, and eventually his fingers sends shocks through her, and it’s not long before she’s trying to clutch at his hair while her world shatters. He works her through her orgasm, coaxing as much as she can give, until she’s panting up at the ceiling she can finally see again.

He crawls back up her body, and she pulls him in for a kiss, tasting herself on him, and as the taste fades to just Leonard, he slips easily inside her. She moans when he’s fully seated, and he stills, dropping his face beside hers for a moment before setting a slow rhythm that eases her back toward the edge, pushing her closer and closer until she’s pretty sure she’s babbling incoherently.

Leonard lifts his face as he speeds up, his blue eyes locked onto hers as she crashes into another orgasm. Her eyes close at the sensation, and his movements grow erratic before he follows her to his own release.

He pulls out of her almost too soon and flips onto his back, breathing hard and staring up at nothing. Sara rolls over and carefully touches his arm, not sure whether he needs a break from the contact, and he immediately takes her hand and his and pulls it to his chest, their fingers laced together.

Sara watches him until his eyes drift shut, until she’s too tired to stay awake, and then she falls asleep, utterly sated after the emotional day.

***

When Leonard wakes the next morning, Sara’s still asleep next to him. They’ve lost contact in the night, but she’s still facing him, breathing softly.

The day before was almost too much, in so many ways: the tension with Mick, the first sight of what will grow to be his child, the unexpectedly strong urge to protect Sara however he can, their coming together with so many barriers stripped raw.

But she’s still here, and so is he, and so are the emotions between them.

He’s pretty sure he’ll never get enough of Sara Lance. Her confidence, her abilities, her humor, the way she smiles at him, they all pull him so strongly. The pregnancy complicates things, perhaps, but it does absolutely nothing to diminish their connection, their trust, their attraction and explosive chemistry.

Holding off long enough to make sure she ate was torture thanks to the looks she kept shooting him.

The protectiveness for a grown, capable woman might be a problem, he admits to himself. As much as he wants to, he can’t wrap her up in blankets and keep her safe, any more than he was able to for Lisa. Probably less, even, since he refuses to smother their new relationship; as strong as it feels despite the complications, they’ve only actually known each other for a couple months.

It feels like a lifetime.

And thanks to the—

He won’t keep calling it a complication.

Thanks to the pregnancy and the baby who will follow, he’ll have an actual lifetime with her.

It should scare the shit out of him, but instead it makes it easier to breathe. He can’t say he loves her, not yet, even though he knows for sure it’s at least headed that way if it isn’t quite there yet, but he needs her.

That part _does_ scare the shit out of him, but not enough to nullify the rest.

Sara stirs, interrupting his musing, and he can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips when she blinks sleepily at him.

“Good morning,” he says quietly.

“Morning.” She yawns, then reaches for her phone, checking the time. She closes her eyes and reaches for him absently. He takes her hand, and she smiles. “I’ve got some spare clothes in my car. We’ve got enough time to shower before work if we share.” She opens her eyes, pinning him with a mock glare. “But no hanky panky. We’ll have to hit a drive through for breakfast as it is.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he says, lips twitching.

They do, actually, manage to refrain from “hanky panky” during their shower, but there’s still an intoxicating intimacy to it, and they linger longer than they should. Sara, who has to be at work half an hour before him that day, won’t have time to stop for food, and he doesn’t really have anything portable, so after she’s left, he drives by her favorite bakery and gets a couple boxes of pastries, one of them for his own team.

When he shows up at her bank with breakfast in hand, he gets a knowing look from Kendra, an appreciative nod from Rory, and a kiss from Sara in front of both of them.

It’s completely worth the extra time in his morning commute.


	9. I've Been So Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! A few things before we dive in here.
> 
> First, I have to cut back to once a week chapters; my health is not letting me write often enough to keep up with two, and I’d rather cut back now while I still have a buffer to work with, rather than risk even less frequent updates. So, Tuesdays. Tuesdays are good, and easy to remember for Legends, right?
> 
> Second, NSFW bit near the end of the first half.
> 
> Third, this chapter pulls from the episode where Chronos takes Leonard. So there’s some violence and Leonard is at risk. Fallout from that will carry over into the next chapter, as it carries over into the next episode.
> 
> Fourth and finally? You’re all amazing, and I can’t tell you how much the feedback on this means to me. I’ll shush now and let you get to reading ;)

 

“Morning sickness isn’t named right,” Sara groans, cautiously joining Leonard back in the kitchen. He’s put away the raw meat, and the smell has faded. On the counter are saltines and ginger ale. “I'm sorry. You had this whole dinner planned…”

“We'll try again another day,” he says, moving over to her.

She looks up at him, and she wants to cry; she feels miserable, and the nausea came out of nowhere this week, and she'd really like to go back to the part where she was just sort of lacking in appetite. Meanwhile, Leonard is standing there and looking at her with so much concern in his eyes.

“What can I do?” he asks.

She shakes her head. “I don't know, I've never done this before!”

He wraps his arms around her, and she sighs against his chest.

“I'm sorry,” she says again, voice muffled by his shirt. He’s a little stiffer than usual, but he just rubs her back, and after a few minutes, she's able to relax, and he pulls away.

“Does anything sound good?” he asks.

Sara thinks about it carefully, avoiding too much detail even in her own imagination. “Nilla Wafers,” she decides. “I liked those when I was sick as a kid.”

Leonard chuckles. “Then cookies for dinner it is.” He hesitates before placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, then starts rummaging through his cupboard while she watches him.

She’s only been getting sick for a couple days, though the nausea started mid-week. She felt basically useless all weekend and stayed here at Leonard's, and he's done anything she's forced herself to ask him for.

They're still getting to know each other in some ways. The relationship is brand new. She's more comfortable with casual contact than he is, she's noticed, but she's pretty sure he wants to initiate more often than he does. They're learning each other's sleep habits and cleaning habits.

It's good, and it's necessary if they're going to be living together, but she can tell that he doesn't want to tell her no to anything she asks right now, so she's trying hard not to ask unless she really needs something.

Leonard places cookies on two different plates and carries them to the candlelit table. Sara smiles, grabbing a can of ginger ale and joining him.

“Cookies are super romantic,” she says, not letting herself apologize again as she sits across from him, and he smirks.

“This was always my plan: get you pregnant and seduce you with cookies.”

Sara laughs and takes a bite, continuing when her stomach immediately demands more.

“Probably could've skipped straight to the cookies,” she says.

They eat in silence for a few minutes before Leonard asks, “What's your plan for work tomorrow?”

Sara makes a face. “Well, it's not like I can take off work until I'm not getting sick anymore. I'll eat lunch in my office and hope nobody cooks anything I can smell from the break room, I guess.”

“What about driving?” Leonard asks, and Sara grows queasy just thinking about it.

Shit. Getting sick while driving isn't exactly safe, and she's been at her worst when she'll be headed to work.

“I can drive you,” Leonard says, “at least until you know how you're doing in the car in the mornings.”

“Alright,” she agrees with a sigh, setting down a half-eaten wafer. “Thanks.”

Leonard studies her, clearly trying to make a decision about something, and Sara takes a sip of her soda while she waits.

“You don't like needing help,” he says, “but you're letting me. I want to help more. You have to tell me if I take it too far.”

He's right that she doesn't like needing help, but it feels different with Leonard. While she's still trying not to ask for help if she can avoid it, it's different when he offers. He looks like he wants to say more, though, and—

“Move in,” he proposes. “You're here in your free time already, and you were planning to before the baby’s born. This way, I'll be able to help during the week, too.” He frowns. “I can't do anything about you getting sick, but I'd like to do everything I can to make it as tolerable as possible.” His expression smooths out. “Think about it?”

Sara nods and nibbles absently on a cookie, watching Leonard as she thinks. Her first instinct is to say yes; it makes everything easier, and they were going to eventually anyway. However, that's followed closely by the knowledge that they've only known each other for about two months, that she's crazy to be thinking about it so soon.

But they work so well together. Yes, they're still learning how to share a space, but they can already read each other. They know each other's likes and dislikes, know of family and friends. They click together in work like they were made to be partners. The feeling like she's known him forever has only grown stronger since they shifted into a proper relationship.

And he so clearly wants to help.

“Okay,” she agrees, and she smirks at his shocked look before she continues. “I don't want to let my apartment go yet, though. Kendra’s been talking about looking for a place with Ray, so maybe I can sublet it to them or something.”

Leonard nods. “People will wonder why we're moving so quickly,” he cautions.

Sara shrugs a shoulder. “Let them. They aren't in this relationship.” She grins. “They aren't my _boyfriend_.”

Leonard’s lips twitch. “I prefer ‘partner’ or even ‘lover’ over the juvenile titles.”

She's barely managed to eat anything, and they're planning to move in together, and really her mind shouldn't slip so easily to sex, but the way his voice drops on the word “lover” should be outlawed.

She swallows. “Fine. They aren't my lovers. It isn't their business.”

His eyes darken at the tone of her voice, but his gaze drops to her mostly-full plate, and he shakes his head. “No,” he says, and it takes her a second to remember what he's referring to. “They aren't.”

“Can I borrow your laptop?” she asks. “I want to see if Kendra wants my place.” She thinks for a second. “I'm pretty sure all your furniture is better than mine, so we shouldn't need a truck or anything to move.”

When he nods, she moves to get up.

“I'll get it,” he says, standing before she can. “Eat your damned cookies.”

“Fine,” Sara grumbles around a grin. He squeezes her shoulder before putting the computer in front of her and slipping back into his seat. She shoves another couple cookies into her mouth before opening the laptop.

She pauses when she sees the browser is already up, and she swallows, her eyes flicking to him. “You were trying to find things to help me,” she says, embarrassed that she's on the edge of tears again, but he was on a new daddies page with suggestions for helping partners with morning sickness.

While Sara doesn't consider an unplanned pregnancy lucky, when it comes to the baby’s father, she doesn't think she could've possibly chosen better.

***

Sara is tearing up again, and Leonard feels a familiar jolt of panic. Maybe if his father hadn't been a piece of shit, he'd have some idea of how to handle this.

It doesn't help that he knows she's strong, that she wouldn't normally be this close to tears, but that the same thing that's making her sick all day is wreaking havoc on her hormones.

He can't blame the kid, and he can't blame her, so that just leaves him, and he's been trying to find ways to help, but apparently that makes her cry, too.

“I can Google ways to help Raymond instead,” he drawls, at a loss for what else he can say. “I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to transfer his training to you before long, anyway.”

Sara laughs, and she stops looking like she's about to cry, and he breathes easier. They fall into a comfortable silence as she writes to Kendra.

He's surprised she agreed to move in so soon and so easily, but he's glad she did. She isn't eating enough, and she's always tired, and if there's anything at all he can do, he's going to do it, if she’ll let him.

He's glad they've agreed not to tell anyone, if only because of how much shit Mick would be giving him if the man knew how much he was willing to do to spare Sara any discomfort.

His reasons aren't entirely selfless, though, he knows. He likes having her around. She makes the apartment a lighter place. Everything feels right when she's there, and he knows maybe they're rushing things, but it's not exactly like getting pregnant before the first date is taking it slow.

Which reminds him…

“I'd like to take you out on a date,” he says, and her eyes meet his. “Nausea-friendly, of course. Maybe we'll have a better idea of that by next weekend.”

Sara smiles and nods, then chuckles. Then she laughs, and she's laughing so hard that she's holding her stomach, and Leonard can't help but grin.

“I didn't realize a date with me was so laughable,” he says in a mostly even tone.

“No,” she says catching her breath, “it's just, I just agreed to move in, and we're having a kid in like 8 months, and you just asked me out on our first official date.”

“We could always pretend the shindig you helped me at was our first,” he says, and his body’s response to the way her eyes darken is immediately and involuntary.

“The closet was nice,” she says, voice much too casual for how hard she was just laughing. “And the dress. Maybe the car ride.”

“And what about after the car ride?” he asks, and her eyes drop to his lips.

“That was good, too, yeah,” she breathes.

She stands and moves around to his side of the table, pushing his chair so that she can stand between his legs. She leans down and kisses him, and he closes his eyes.

It's easy to get caught up in his worry for her, for the baby, as irrational as the worry might be, but when she kisses him, that all flies right out of his head. He doesn't forget who she is to him, but he's not hung up on it, not worried about what could happen, because what _is_ happening is infinitely good for both of them.

His hands come to her hips, and she straddles him, sitting in his lap. As the kiss deepens, she starts rocking against him, and when she gets faster with the movements, he helps, pulling and tilting her with his hands, until she's making that sound in the back of her throat that says she's close, and he's so hard he can't think straight.

He stands, and she wraps her legs around his hips as he carries her to the counter—the bedroom is too far away. He sets her down and pulls down her jeans before unzipping his own, but before he can even get them out of the way, she's tugging him closer, trying to get him inside her, and who is he to deny her anything?

So he slips inside her with them both still mostly dressed, and she moans into his mouth, and he curses at how wet she already is.

“Move,” she demands, and with a deep chuckle, he complies, thrusting carefully at first, then harder as it's clear he isn't hurting her, and she's chanting his name as he picks up speed. Her eyes close as she hits her peak, squeezing him rhythmically in the process, but he holds off before his own finish because as beautiful as Sara normally is, she is stunning when she comes, mouth open and head thrown back and fingers splayed wide, her back arched and legs wrapped around him tight.

When he comes down from the orgasm that hits him hard, she's rubbing her hands along his back and chuckling.

“Who needs a first official date?” she says, voice gratifyingly breathless. “We've got cookies and candles and countertop sex.”

***

The work week drags by. Sara’s exhausted, and Leonard has to stay late every night. By the time Friday finally rolls around, Sara’s holed herself up in her office in order to quarantine herself from the smells, and she’s fighting to stay awake.

There’s a knock at her door, and Kendra opens it, giving her a friendly smile.

“Mind if I eat in here?” she asks, holding up what looks like a fairly safe salad.

“Sure,” Sara answers. She’s already eaten what she could of the mac and cheese Leonard found time to pack for her, but she hasn’t gotten to talk to Kendra at all this week.

The other woman sits down. “You’ve been busy,” she comments, opening her salad.

“Yeah,” Sara says. “Sorry, I’ve been—” She gets a whiff of raw onion and boiled egg. “Shit,” she manages before she’s losing her lunch in her wastebasket. She ties off the plastic bag and rummages in her drawer for some gum that won’t turn her stomach further, and when she finally looks back at Kendra, she sees the salad’s cover is back in place and the other woman is staring at her.

“You alright?” she asks.

“Yeah,” she answers. “I just haven’t been feeling great this week.” It’s true enough.

“Are you sick?” Kendra asks. “You never get sick.” Her eyes widen before Sara can respond. “Sara, are you _pregnant_?”

Sara busies herself with finding somewhere to toss her gum wrapper. “Just because someone pukes doesn’t mean they’re pregnant, Kendra.”

“I’m not hearing a ‘no,’” she says. “It’s Leonard’s, isn’t it?”

“Kendra…”

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

Sara meets her friend’s eyes and nods. “We aren’t telling anyone yet.”

“I won’t tell anyone, but…” Kendra studies her. “Are we happy about this? How are you doing?”

Sara exhales. “It’s not like we planned it. I mean, that would be stupid; we barely knew each other.” She’s quiet for a minute, and Kendra lets her think. “But if it was going to happen, Leonard’s like perfect.” She rolls her eyes. “I mean, he _isn’t_ perfect. He likes things his way, doesn’t like things he can’t plan for. He had a shitty childhood he doesn’t like to talk about.” She smiles. “But he takes such good care of me. He makes sure I have whatever I can eat, and he’s been driving me to work just so that the baby and I are safe. And he doesn’t make me feel irrational when I have little breakdowns, just holds me, tells me comforting facts if they’re true.”

Her hand moves to her stomach. “He’s excited, I think. Worried, and I think he gets frustrated sometimes because it didn’t happen according to a timeline, but when we talk about the baby, there’s this look in his eyes, like he can’t believe it’s happening, but in a good way, you know?”

Kendra’s watching her with far too much understanding. “And how do you feel about the baby?”

Sara shakes her head. “I don't really know yet, honestly. Sometimes it's too much to think about, how much everything is gonna change. Then other times it's like… I'm a good age for it and can support us myself, and the father makes good money and will be a big help, so even if I didn't choose the time, it's not like it's the worst situation.

“But when I try to think about what it'll be like when the pregnancy is over, I come up blank. I've never really been around kids, Kendra. What if I totally fuck everything up?”

Kendra smiles at her. “First, you're not gonna mess everything up. I know you. Second, maybe you should try being around kids, if you're worried about it. Find someone to babysit.”

“That might be a good idea,” Sara agrees.

They talk though the rest of Kendra’s lunch break, and when she's alone again, Sara sees a message on her phone.

_Will be late again tonight, but I'm looking forward to our date this weekend._

***

_can’t wait_

Leonard sets his phone back down just as Mick opens the office door without warning. He closes it behind him and stands in front of Leonard’s desk, arms crossed.

“What is it, Mick?” Leonard taps his pen on his desk. “I’m trying to plan the next—”

“She’s pregnant, isn’t she?” Mick interrupts, and Leonard stills.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Mick challenges. “Blondie’s pregnant. I saw the appointments on your calendar. You knocked her up, and that’s why things have been different.”

Leonard sets down his pen. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Mick.”

“You sayin’ she isn’t having your kid?”

“I’m saying the changes started before that.” He stands. “You’ve been changing, too. You want the easy jobs, the ones without any thought required. You just want to coast, being a crook who doesn’t have to worry about being caught.”

Leonard feels a pang of guilt at his words, but he’s had enough of this. Mick’s been at him for months now, and he’s done. He has too much else on his plate to take this shit from his partner.

His _employee_.

“You want to be a common criminal,” he snarls, “go be one. Leave me out of it.”

Felicity flings open the door and stops short at the scene in front of her.

“What?” Leonard asks without looking, just shy of a growl, and it startles Felicity out of her immobility.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever’s going on here.” She waves between them. “It’s just that… the CCPD, they need your help.”

He drags his attention from Mick. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll show you,” Felicity says, grabbing the remote to the small TV in Leonard’s office. Mick grunts as she flips to whatever she’s looking for.

“I don’t need this shit,” he says, and he turns and leaves the room.

Leonard feels another stab of guilt, but he pushes it away as Felicity stops on a local news station.

“There’s a hostage situation at Chronos Bank,” she says. “Some guy took a bunch of customers into one of the vaults. Detective West called to ask if we still had copies of the blueprints since we did a job there, and we don’t, but I told him you might remember since you remember like everything ever. He said if you do, you should go down on him— _to_ him, God—because they can’t get ahold of anyone who knows how to get to the hostages safely.”

Leonard nods, makes sure he has his wallet and keys, and heads to Chronos without any further discussion.

He did the job at that bank with Mick, and he could probably use the man’s help—he always feels better when Mick has his back—but he’s pretty sure his partner will need more than a few minutes to cool off.

He also knows it’s justified. He basically just told his best friend to get out of a business that Leonard dragged him into to start with.

Leonard makes it to the bank quickly enough, spending the drive going back over the blueprints and layout in his mind. When he gets there, it looks like at least half the CCPD is present, but he finds Joe West easily enough near the front of the bank.

“What’s going on?” Leonard asks calmly. From here, he can’t see anything happening in the bank, but with the way the lobby is laid out, he wouldn’t unless the perpetrators were particularly incompetent. They wouldn’t need his help if that were the case.

“Five hostages in the vault,” Joe answers. “One of them’s the guy who’s probably gonna end up my son-in-law one day.”

“Barry Allen’s in there?” Leonard’s familiar enough with the kid; they butted heads when Leonard did a job at S.T.A.R. Labs, but he respects the guy.

“Yeah, him and Cisco, and a woman with her sister and kid.” Joe waves at a camera they must have been able to tap into, and Leonard sees just one armed assailant, carefully watching his hostages. Barry looks calm, maybe only mildly annoyed; Cisco looks restless; and a woman has a protective arm around her crying sister and terrified child. “He wouldn’t accept our terms, and he’s stopped talking to the negotiator, so we’re sending in a team, but they need to know what they’re facing. We think there’s at least one more perp, and we need to know where someone could hide.”

Leonard nods and grabs a piece of paper, quickly sketching the interior as close to scale as he can get. “Here and here,” he says, circling the areas. “They’d be able to see your team coming without being detected. You’ll also need to watch…” He continues spelling out the potential trouble spots, repeating the information when the head of the rescue team comes over.

Leonard spares a moment to think about how he’d feel if Sara were one of the hostages. He can’t even imagine if it was her with their kid. “Let me go in with the team,” he tells Joe before the team can leave. “I can help better from inside.”

Detective West studies him for a moment before nodding. “Okay, but you’ve gotta suit up.” He waves someone over, and before he knows it, Leonard’s strapped into a bulletproof vest and tactical gear, and he’s breaking into the bank with the rest of the team.

It all goes smoothly, at first. They do find someone hiding where Leonard had thought was most likely. But then something happens when they get to the vault, someone goes left who should’ve gone right, and there’s suddenly chaos, and a gun pointed in his direction. He sees Barry racing toward the man as he fires.

Thanks to Leonard’s childhood, it isn’t the first time he’s been sure he’s going to die.

This time, though, he has so much more to lose.

As the bullet slams into his chest with the force of a baseball bat, he thinks of Sara.

He blacks out for only a second as he falls against the wall behind him, and he opens his eyes to one of the team—Patty, he thinks—patting him down as she checks for injuries. “I’m fine,” he says, wincing as his hand goes to where the bullet met vest, just inches below his exposed neck.

“You wouldn’t be if Barry hadn’t run into the guy,” she says, looking rattled, but Leonard’s having trouble focusing. “He was aiming for your head, and he would’ve gotten it, too.”

All he wants—all he _needs_ —is to get home to Sara, who he knows is waiting for him. He can feel it like an ache, more painful than the bruise he knows he’ll be sporting tomorrow.

He also knows, though, that he’s not going home for hours yet, not after what’s happened. He spares a nod of thanks to Barry, then lets himself be led to the paramedics to be checked out. They quickly give him the all clear, and he pulls out his phone to text Sara that he’ll be home as soon as he can, but she shouldn’t wait up. Then he goes to find Joe for the questions he knows he’ll need to answer.

Meanwhile, his heart and mind are across town in his not-so-empty apartment.

***

Not too long after Kendra drives her to the apartment, Sara curls up in the empty bed, too tired to wait any longer for Len to get home. It isn’t like she’s unused to sleeping alone, and honestly, the extra space is kinda nice.

At least, it is for a few minutes.

Exhausted as she is, her mind still finds a way to wander. She thinks about the last things she needs to bring over from her apartment so Kendra can move in there. She wonders what her family’s reactions will be when they find out she’s pregnant; if they take it half as well as Kendra, she’ll be lucky. She’s been too busy to even talk to them lately, and she isn’t even sure she’s mentioned Leonard.

She thinks about Leonard. She can practically feel how different is it for him to be unguarded around her. He’s trying so hard, even on top of the rightness they’ve had together since the beginning, and Sara isn’t sure what she’s done to deserve how devoted he already seems.

Well, besides getting knocked up.

She rolls onto her back, resting her hand on her stomach, where it seems to find itself much too often lately. The pregnancy, she can wrap her mind around, at least in a conceptual way. She’s done the research, knows what to expect, when they should start buying things, all of that.

The fact that after the pregnancy comes a real, actual _child_ is a little harder to wrap her mind around, and it feels like every time she thinks she’s got it, it becomes fake again. Sara knows it’s early and she’s got plenty more time just being pregnant to adjust to the reality of a baby, but she wants to be more connected than she is.

Sara closes her eyes and makes herself picture it. She’s holding a baby. It’s a boy– No, it’s a girl, and she’s got Sara’s eyes and that little frown Leonard gets when he’s thinking. Leonard’s there, watching them with that almost reverent expression he gets sometimes, the one that makes her feel like she should look away to give him privacy. He reaches out and runs a careful hand over their baby’s dusting of hair, then smiles up at Sara before giving her a kiss. “I love my girls,” he murmurs against her lips.

Oh, shit. Her eyes fly open, and she stares at the ceiling, her heart racing.

Really, the fact that she’s fallen in love with the father of her child, the man she’s moving in with, the man she’s had feelings for from the start, it shouldn’t be so much of a shock, but she just…

She didn’t realize, not until her imagination’s version of Leonard put it to words, just how much she feels for him. She actively wants a future with him, would whether there was a baby involved or not, and it’s terrifying. She and the baby would be fine alone financially, and they’d make it just fine.

But if she’s in love with him already, it means the possibility of him leaving holds so much more power over her. She focuses on her breathing, running through everything she knows about Leonard until she’s calmed back down.

He wouldn’t leave her, wouldn’t leave _them_. When she lets herself think about it, there’s absolutely no doubt in her mind that he’ll be around indefinitely.

It leaves her wishing he were here now.

With a sigh, she rolls over and grabs his pillow, clutching it to her chest.

She’s in love with the father of her child. She is so screwed.

***

The apartment is dark when Leonard finally makes it inside. He empties his pockets and heads straight to the bedroom, still overcome with the need to see Sara.

She’s curled around his pillow, sound asleep.

He breathes. It’s irrational, he knows, how much it helps to see her safe. He was the one in danger today, and yet, he can’t shake how easy it would’ve been for them to lose each other.

Their jobs aren’t exceptionally risky, but they _do_ carry risk. He can’t ask her to give up something that’s such a big part of who she is, wouldn’t ask even if he thought she’d agree, just as he has no desire to leave his own job.

There’s a part of him, though, that wishes they could be in a safer time and place, that they could go somewhere and just _be_.

It isn’t like today was his first realization that he loves her—that came on slowly, an inevitable storm he didn’t particularly try to avoid—but he’s now more certain than ever that he wants to spend his life with her. He knows that whatever his future holds, it will be better with her in it, and he can only hope she feels the same.

He takes off his clothes and climbs into bed, stroking her hair until she stirs just enough to loosen her grip on the pillow. She frowns as he moves it, until he slips into its place. He tucks her head under his chin and wraps her arm around his torso before wrapping his own arm around her. Sara hums into his chest.

“You’re home,” she mumbles. “I’m glad.”

“So am I,” he says, running a hand along her back. “Go back to sleep.”

“‘Kay.”

Her breath immediately evens back out, and he closes his eyes.

His apartment has never felt more like home, and he knows it’s because of the woman who’s in his arms.


	10. I Wanted Someone to Come Along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This opening scene picks up where last chapter ended and gets adult.
> 
> Some liberties with Per Degaton from the episode because… Well, for obvious reasons. But that’s the kid in this (Per Degaton = PD = Petey).
> 
> Some weaving in of episode dialogue here and there, through the whole story, really, but there’s a favorite Captain Canary exchange modified in this chapter.

 

“Wait, what?” Sara stares at Leonard, hoping she heard him wrong.

He sighs and sits up, and the sheets fall off him, revealing a nasty bruise on his chest.

“I’m alright,” he says quietly.

“But you got _shot_ ,” Sara protests, frowning. She reaches toward him, stopping just shy of making contact, then meets his eyes again, feeling a surge of protective anger. “You got shot,” she repeats. “You could have _died_. I… _We_ could’ve lost you, and I didn’t even know you were in any danger.”

He looks physically pained as he reaches for her hand, and she pulls back instinctively.

“No,” she says, gaze dropping to his chest again. “I need a minute. I need…” She gets up, feeling his eyes on her as she escapes to the master bathroom. She grabs an ointment from under the sink, something she likes to put on her own bruises, and she clutches it as she stares into the mirror, her own exhausted, frightened eyes staring back at her.

She could’ve lost Leonard. She’s only just realized what he means to her, and she could have lost him for good, been left alone. Well, a wave of nausea reminds her, she wouldn’t have been entirely alone. Sara breathes until the nausea passes, still watching the mirror.

She didn’t lose him. He’s still here, right outside the bathroom, in the bed they share, probably wondering if she’s lost her mind. And maybe she has, but that doesn’t make her any more okay with the fact that the man she loves could have _died_. He’s been in her life for so short a time, really, but everything has been different since she’s met him. Everything has been _better_.

Losing him isn’t an option.

Sara takes another deep breath and turns away from her reflection, joining Leonard back on the bed. He’s watching her silently, and he doesn’t move as she makes sure the covers are out of the way before she squirts some of the ointment onto her fingertips and starts spreading it over his bruise.

“I wouldn’t have left you,” he says, and she pauses for a second before she goes back to what she’s doing.

“You can’t know that,” she says. He told her Barry Allen had shoved the shooter hard enough to make him miss his target. “This could’ve been so much worse.” It could’ve been impossible.

Leonard’s hand twitches like he wants to reach for her once more, but he refrains.

“I won’t let it happen again,” he says instead.

“You can’t know that,” she says again. She shuts the ointment and sets it aside, closing her eyes before opening them again immediately, needing to see that he’s still there. “The people in the vault… Everyone is okay?”

He nods.

“That’s probably thanks to you,” she says. “If something like that comes up again, I can’t ask you not to help, the same as I would’ve helped, at least before…” Her hand drops to her stomach, and he tracks the movement before he meets her eyes again, his darker this time. “But I wouldn’t have even known, Len.” She ignores the tears pressing to escape. “I would’ve just been here asleep while you were—” Her voice breaks, and when he reaches for her this time, she doesn’t pull away, instead letting him pull her into his lap and wrap her in his arms while she hides her face against his shoulder.

She clutches at him tightly, taking comfort in his strength, his nearness, his life.

“If it happens again,” he says after a few minutes have passed, his voice low as his chest rumbles against her, “you’ll know. I won’t do anything like that again without telling you. And you’re not going to get rid of me so easy.”

Sara chuckles weakly, pulling him even closer before letting go. He keeps his arms looped around her as she pulls back far enough to see his face.

He looks just as wrecked as she feels.

“I can’t lose you,” she whispers.

“Neither can I,” he returns just as quietly. He’s watching her intently, and he brings a hand up to her face, brushing hair behind her ear so gently that she’s close to tears again. He lowers his mouth to hers, and she closes her eyes, inhaling shakily as he makes contact.

His lips move across hers, softly at first, but when Sara pulls him closer again, it’s like he lets go of whatever restraint he had. The kiss becomes firmer, almost possessive as his lips mold themselves to her, and it’s like he’s trying to tell her something, show how he feels without saying a word.

So she shows him right back, putting everything she can of herself into the contact. The kiss grows sloppy, urgent with her need to be as close to him as possible, to forget that she could have lost him when she was only just realizing she loves him.

When one of his hands finds its way under her pajama top, she pulls away so she can pull it off, pressing her chest immediately back to his, belatedly remembering his bruise. He doesn’t let her pull away for his benefit, though, keeping a firm hand at the center of her back, so she can slip out of his grip if she wants to—she doesn’t—while he’s still making clear she’s just where he wants her.

She presses him back against the pillows gently, following him down without breaking their kiss. He slides his hands along her bare back, then slips them under her underwear, pulling her close before moving the clothing out of the way. She pulls her hips back just far enough to let him, entirely unwilling to move any farther away than she has to.

Leonard removes his own underwear next, and she lets her hips settle back against his, reveling in the feel of skin against skin, her entire body pressed against him.

She can’t say how long they stay like that, holding each other as close as possible, but eventually, it shifts from making out to sex as he pushes himself inside her, and she moves back and forth atop him while his arms wrap around her and his fingers press into her back. She lets her face drop back to his shoulder, and as an orgasm ripples through her, a few tears finally break free, and Leonard slows as they fall on his skin.

“Sara…” His voice is rough and concerned, and Sara shakes her head.

“Don’t stop. I need this.” _I need you_.

He starts moving again, and she moves with him, and while the pace never grows frantic, both of them unwilling to do anything that forces them to let go, it does grow faster, and his orgasm pulls another from her, slow and intense as he gasps against the shell of her ear.

When their breathing has returned to normal, Leonard starts moving a hand up and down her back.

“Are you okay?” he asks, and she lifts her upper body enough that she can see his face again.

“I need you,” she says.

_I need you to be okay._

_I need you to be here with me._

_I need you to love me._

“You have me, Sara. I’m not going anywhere.”

***

They end up drifting off again, taking advantage of the Saturday morning, and Sara seems much better when they wake again, still in his arms, still sated from their earlier affirmation.

Seeing the depth of her feelings surprised him. He was sure she couldn’t feel quite as strongly for him as he felt for her, but the pain and desperation at the thought that she’d almost lost him had very nearly been his undoing.

She’s watching him now, a tiny smile playing at her lips.

He knows how he felt when she was involved in that heist, and that was before they’d known about the baby, and he had visual and audio the whole time. He hates that he was in a position that he could have lost them both, and he hates what it did to her.

But the way she’s watching him, like he’s the man he’s always hoped to be but never quite felt he managed, it’s like his whole world is shifting again, narrowing in focus to the woman in front of him and the tiny life growing inside her.

“Good morning,” he says finally.

“Morning,” she says back before she finally breaks eye contact, grabbing her phone and a few of the crackers he keeps stocked on her side of the bed.

It’s his turn to smile as he watches her eat, and really, it shouldn’t fill him with the level of contentment it does, but yet again… It’s Sara, so of course it does.

“Kendra says someone she knows needs a sitter tonight, wants to know if we’re up for it,” Sara says. “What do you think?”

He doesn’t think he wants to. Actually, he’s certain he doesn’t want to. He raised Lisa, yes, and more of him than he even wants to admit to himself is happy about the baby, but other people’s kids have never been his thing.

Sara looks so nervous, though, as she waits for his response, that he already knows what his answer has to be. “Fine.”

She grins, ignoring the gruffness of his reply, and starts typing out a message to Kendra.

Sara’s so ready to doubt her abilities as a mother. It’s not exactly like he thinks he’ll be the world’s best father, but he does, at least, have experience that she doesn’t seem to. And yet, he can’t picture her being anything short of an amazing mother.

“Other people’s kids aren’t going to be the same as ours,” he feels the need to point out, and she finishes the message and sets down the phone.

“I know,” she says, “but I can’t exactly try taking care of ours yet, so Kendra thought maybe I’d stop being so nervous if I did this.”

He nods, despite being fairly certain this is going to go badly, and she smiles at him like he’s given her the moon. He sighs as she gets carefully out of bed and starts getting ready for her day.

He’s never going to be able to say no to anything that won’t harm her, not really. He may as well get used to it.

***

Leonard needs to learn how to tell Sara no, he thinks as the eight-year-old screeches at the top of his lungs, because he is never doing this shit again.

“Petey,” he tries for the twentieth time. “Stop shouting.”

“NO!” He climbs on the sofa and starts jumping, and when Leonard carefully picks the kid up and puts him back on the floor, the boy collapses, falling to the carpet and kicking his legs in the air. Leonard chances a look at Sara and sees she’s staring in shock at the scene.

Shit.

“Oh, God,” she says, and he’s seen that look on her face often enough that he knows she feels sick.

Leonard evaluates the child for a moment, deciding there’s nothing in reach for him to harm or harm himself with, then takes the few steps over to Sara.

“This isn’t our kid,” he reminds her, though if he’s honest, he feels his own stab of doubt at the complete lack of control they have over the hellion.

“But what if it _is_ ,” she whispers. “What if this is our life?” She looks at him, wide-eyed, and he pulls her into a hug before the screeching increases in intensity.

Sara breathes and pulls back, stepping around Leonard and toward the kid.

“That's enough, Pete,” she says sternly. He's never seen quite that expression on her face.

If looks could kill, the kid would be erased from the timeline.

Petey slows his tantrum for just long enough to stare at her skeptically, then resumes. Sara sighs in defeat and collapses onto the couch, and Leonard joins her.

“How much longer until his parents are here?” Sara asks.

“Two hours,” Leonard answers. “We are never babysitting someone else's kid again,” he adds, just in case she has any crazy ideas.

“Agreed,” Sara says, leaning over so she can rest her head on his shoulder.

***

Sara’s completely exhausted by the time they’re alone in their apartment again, her ears still ringing. She manages to text Kendra some vague threats for setting them up with evil incarnate, and she kisses Leonard goodnight before she succumbs to sleep.

The next morning is rough, and Leonard asks whether they should reschedule their date, but she shakes her head vehemently.

“I’ve waited for months for this, Leonard, and so have you. We’re not gonna reschedule.”

She naps in the early afternoon, and she wakes to find Leonard reading quietly next to her. Between them rests every anti-nausea remedy she’s ever heard of, as well as some she hasn’t. She sits up and selects one cautiously, settling on a lemon-flavored lollipop designed for morning sickness, and Leonard watches her carefully as she tries it.

Unlike anything else she’s tried today, it doesn’t cause her stomach to immediately revolt, so she gives him a thumbs up, and he puts his arm around her, careful not to jar her. She rests her head on his shoulder much as she had the night before.

“We can do this, right?” she asks, taking the candy from her mouth after a few minutes. “We’re not gonna end up stuck with a kid we can’t control.”

“We can do this,” he says. “We’re having a child, not demon spawn.”

Sara chuckles before sobering. “Seriously, though, what happens if our kid is like that?”

Leonard sets down his book. “Kids don’t get like that overnight, any more than my dad turned abusive overnight. It doesn’t mean we’ll be able to stop it, not for sure, but we’ll see it coming. We can decide on a plan then. For now, it makes the most sense to assume that our child will _not_ be planning to destroy the earth when he grows up.”

She relaxes into his side. “I don’t know how I’d do this without you.”

“You’d be fine, if you had to,” he says. “You won’t have to.” It’s quiet for a couple minutes while Sara goes back to sucking on the lollipop. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” she answers, realizing it’s true. “This is helping. What are we doing tonight?”

He’s watching her face as best as he can given their position. “If you’re sure you’re up to going out—”

“I am,” she says firmly.

“—I thought we might go see a movie.” He pauses. “It’s a little boring and cliché, but it didn’t seem like anywhere with food or a lot of movement was going to be a good idea.”

Sara makes a face at the thought of eating anything more solid. “Sorry.”

Leonard presses a kiss to the top of her head. “I figured we could look for ways to break into the movie theater while we were there.”

She laughs, feeling a ridiculous swell of affection for this man. “That sounds perfect,” she says, and she finds she means it.

***

Sara seems to be doing much better. They had fun before the movie started, discussing ways to sneak in without being caught; it wouldn’t be hard since this theater has almost no security. The movie itself was fine, some science fiction thing he’d probably enjoy immensely under other circumstances.

Instead, he’s distracted.

The babysitting was a disaster, and it seems to have hurt Sara’s confidence some. He hopes it doesn't have anything to do with how bad a day she was having, but he knows it might. He needs to find a way to fix it, but he knows there might not actually _be_ a fix.

And Leonard hates not being able to make a plan, not being able to act on it.

Distraction seems his next best option, because distraction for the next seven-odd months is completely feasible, right? So he’s making a mental list of everything he can do to keep her from worrying, to keep himself from worrying.

As much as she says she doesn’t know how she could do this without him, he knows he’s already come to rely on her way too much to let her fall apart.

As if she would.

If she really were alone—if the worst had happened on Friday—she would be okay. She’s so strong and smart and capable. She wouldn’t even be _alone_ ; even her coworkers, both at Timeless Bank and Waverider Industries, would be there for her, and that’s on top of her family and other friends.

But if his presence, his help means that she’s able to share some of the burden, that she doesn’t have to be as strong and independent as she’s capable of, he’s going to do everything in his power to make sure he does all he can.

Apparently, he’s a little too distracted; Sara tilts her head up to whisper in his ear.

“You’re thinking too loudly.”

Maybe it goes both ways. He’s not alone, not the only one responsible here, and just being near her lessens the weight on his shoulders when he lets it. He looks at Sara, her eyes shining in the dark theater, and bends to kiss her. She leans contentedly against his shoulder, and he forces himself to pay attention to the movie.

He enjoys it, or at least what he ends up seeing of it. Sara claims she does, too, but she ends up falling asleep with an hour left to go.

They take a walk afterward. It’s a clear night, the stars bright in the sky, and as they walk hand-in-hand, an unfamiliar peace settles over Leonard.

He’s never had a romantic partner who was actually a partner before, someone he trusts as much as he loves, someone who’s capable, someone he doesn’t tire of. It’s worth…

It’s worth everything. It’s worth the shitty childhood, raising—protecting—a kid when he was still one himself, living with Mick and Lisa when he was only a teenager. It’s worth the distance from others into his adulthood.

He’ll do everything in his power to protect their child from the same sort of youth, but if it led him here, he wouldn’t change a thing about his own. It’s how it was meant to be.

They sit on a park bench and look up at the stars.

“What do you think our kid will be like?” Sara asks after a few minutes.

Leonard shakes his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t made it that far yet.” He’s much too caught up in the moment and the past, and it takes him several seconds to shift his thoughts to the future. “I think they’re probably going to be pretty stubborn.”

Sara laughs. “Yeah, I guess that’s probably a given with us as parents, huh?” She takes his hand and settles it over her stomach. “I think it’s a girl,” she says, “but when I have dreams about it, it’s a boy.”

He smiles to himself as he pictures both. He sees Sara cradling a little girl. He sees their son as a small child, smirking up at them with Sara’s particular shade of blue eyes. “We’d do fine with either,” he says.

“Okay,” she says. “I’ll trust you on that as best I can. Petey was a fluke.”

Leonard snorts. “Petey was definitely something,” he mutters, and she elbows his playfully.

“He’s just a kid,” she says. “Maybe he’ll grow out of it.” She eyes him. “Speaking of growing out of things…”

“What?” He narrows his eyes, already having an idea of where she’s going with this particular subject change.

***

“What’s going on with you and Mick?” she asks. She knows it’s been bothering him, even if he’s had more pressing things on his mind. Twice while she was trying to sleep off the nausea, she saw him check his phone for notifications, and she knows Lisa only texts him at night. Mick’s the only other one who contacts him on the weekends.

Leonard’s jaw clenches, and for a moment, she regrets breaking the mood. “He doesn’t like the direction I’ve been taking Acquisitions.”

“That can’t be it, can it?”

Leonard shrugs. “He… He guessed about the baby, but I don’t think that’s the problem.”

“Mick knows?” she asks, remembering with a start that she hasn’t told him about her lunch on Friday. “Kendra guessed, too.”

Leonard presses his lips together in a thin smile, but there’s no real humor in it. “He walked out on Friday, right before… You know.”

“Have you really talked to him about any of it?” Sara asks. She doesn’t want to push, but it’s clearly wearing on him, and he’s already got enough to worry about without losing his best friend, too.

Leonard shakes his head. “I guess not.” He takes her hand in both of his, straightening her fingers and studying her palm like it’s the most fascinating thing in the world. “I was angry that he didn’t get it.”

“Don’t you think you at least owe him a conversation?”

“He made his feelings about me and my business plan very clear on Friday.” Leonard lets go of her hand, but he still isn’t meeting her eyes. “He doesn’t want to talk.”

“What about _your_ feelings?” she presses, and he finally looks at her, and while his gaze is heated on the surface, she still sees the troubled look in his eyes, so she tamps down on her gut reaction to him looking at her like that.

“About you?” he deflects, and she smirks despite herself.

“About Mick,” she clarifies needlessly.

“I don’t have any feelings about Mick.” Leonard hasn’t really lied to her before, and her eyebrows shoot up.

“That’s not what it sounded like when you told me about how you met, how he saved you.”

Leonard drops his eyes back to ground. “I know,” he says quietly.

“So,” Sara continues, “stop being an ass and go do something about it.”

He meets her eyes again, surprise clear. “Tonight?”

Sara smiles wryly at him. “I’m actually pretty sure I’m gonna fall asleep the second we get home, and I know he stays up late, even on work nights. So yes, tonight. If he doesn't show up at work tomorrow because you didn’t at least try to talk to him, you’re gonna hate yourself for it.”

***

Sara’s right, and he knows it, so after a token resistance—he really didn’t want to end their date early or leave her alone afterward, but she was insistent—he sought out his friend and partner.

Mick is at a bar he favors when he’s having a rough time, one that features a boxing ring in the center of it, because of course Mick likes a place where he can mix violence and alcohol without getting locked up for it. Leonard slides into the booth, across the table from Mick, and the other man glares.

“What do you want, _boss_?” He says the word disparagingly, and Leonard adjusts his plan.

They aren’t going to solve this with words alone.

“Let’s work this out in the ring,” he suggests.

Mick studies him, appraising, before knocking back the last of his drink and standing. “Let’s do this.”

Once they’ve both got their gloves on and they’re situated in the ring, Leonard starts talking, glad for once that the place doesn’t sell mouth guards.

“I’m not trying to change just to make things harder,” he says.

“Yeah,” Mick says, moving in and swinging at him, Leonard dodging just in time, “and you don’t think I’m a common criminal, either.”

“I don’t,” Leonard says, dodging again before swinging halfheartedly at Mick. It’s hard to try to hit the man with his own unfair words from Friday ringing in his ears. “You’re not.”

“Doesn’t seem like it.” Mick swings again, and again, and Leonard just barely gets his gloves up in a block to take the brunt of a hit. “Doesn’t seem like you need me anymore. I just drag down your grand plans.”

“That isn’t true,” he argues, letting his gloves drop so he can see.

It’s a mistake, and Mick hits him hard. He falls to the ground.

Shit. Sara’s gonna kill him for getting a black eye when he’s still bruised from two days earlier.

“I almost died Friday, Mick.”

This seems to get the man’s attention. “What are you talking about?”

Leonard gets to his feet, his hands back in a defensive position. “I was a stubborn ass and didn’t talk to you about what I was doing, and you walked out. Understandably. And I was too fed up to fix my mistake, so I went without you covering my back. I got shot, and the Allen kid is the only reason it hit a bulletproof vest instead of my skull.”

“Shit.” Mick looks at him uncertainly, and Leonard can’t tell whether he’s planning to hit him again. After a minute, Mick lowers his hands, and Leonard does, too, with a sigh of relief. “Think we need more beers for this.”

It doesn’t take long for them to get a couple more beers—Leonard’s treat—and sit back at the booth.

“I never meant to make you feel like you didn’t belong at Acquisitions,” Leonard says once their drinks are half empty. “You’ve always been my partner, even if you technically work for me. I’ve been treating you like just another employee, and that isn’t right.”

“No,” Mick agrees. “It’s not.”

“I got to thinking, a while back,” Leonard starts trying to explain, “that we could make Acquisitions something more. There’s nowhere we could go from there, not the way we were doing things before. We’d grown stagnant, Mick, and I hated it. My options were to leave or find a way to change.”

Mick’s watching him silently, clearly listening, so Leonard continues.

“It was actually the job for Sara that gave me the idea. I was already working on gaining additional certifications, but it helped me see some of the other ways we could grow, the way we could combine technology and deceit to really make our jobs more effective.”

He shrugs when he finishes, not sure what else to say about his desire for change.

“Shoulda just told me,” Mick says.

“I should have,” Leonard concedes. “At first, I wasn’t sure it was going to work. And then…” He hesitates.

“Sara,” Mick says.

“I don’t want you to blame her for this,” Leonard cautions.

“I don’t.” Mick takes another swig of his drink. “She didn’t turn you into a selfish asshole. Made you less of one, if anything.”

He feels himself relax some at the assurance the Mick doesn’t hold Sara responsible for their problems. “I couldn’t manage the changes at work and at home without treating you like shit.”

Mick nods, finishes his beer, and grabs the last of Leonard’s. Leonard feels a wash of relief, figuring that means he’s been mostly forgiven.

“So you and Sara are having a kid?”

Leonard nods, giving Mick a direct answer this time. “Yes. She’s about nine weeks along. Which means,” he continues, forestalling the next question, which is clear by the confusion on Mick’s face, “that she’s been pregnant about seven weeks, because doctors don’t count the weeks like normal people do.” He knows the real reason, but he likes this one better, and it seems to satisfy Mick.

“So you’re gonna be a dad,” Mick says.

“So it would seem.” He can’t quite help the smile that tugs at his lips, even when Mick notices.

“You did good with Lisa.” Mick sounds completely serious, and Leonard is grateful. “You’ll do good with this one, too.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Leonard tells him honestly.

“Couldn’t have gotten Acquisitions without me, either,” Mick says, still serious, but he isn’t angry like he has been for so long.

“That’s true,” Leonard tells him.

“The changes…” Mick pauses. “It isn’t just that I’m lazy. Course I’m lazy. But I think there’s some good to how we did it before, too, even if we keep going with what you’re doing.”

Leonard shifts into business mode, feeling the familiar thrill of hammering out a new plan. “I’m listening.”

***

After a few more hours and several more beers, Leonard stumbles out of a taxi and up the stairs to his apartment. When he makes it to bed, Sara’s curled up around his pillow like she was the night before. He strips, and he’s about to climb into bed with her when he remembers how sensitive she was to alcohol even before the nausea set in. She had a rough day, and he doesn’t want her to have a rough night, too.

He brushes his teeth as thoroughly as he can before returning to bed, but he seems to have woken Sara in the process since she’s watching him.

“Everything okay?” she asks, and he nods, smiling, enjoying the way she looks even when the world has gone all fuzzy. He climbs into bed, and she looks at him more closely in the dim light. “Did you two get in a fight?”

“Something like that,” he mumbles, wrapping himself around her. She wriggles until she gets comfortable, and he holds her tighter. “We’re gonna try more things at work. He’s back on board.”

“I’m glad,” she says, and he can hear her sincerity even over her exhaustion.

“Go back to sleep,” he tells her, not caring if the words are becoming something of a habit. He’s warm and comfortable, and things are good with him and Sara, and things are good with him and Mick.

He’s _happy_ , and the feeling is usually so fleeting that he can’t believe this is real.

“He’s excited to be Uncle Mick,” Leonard adds, making an effort to enunciate as he remembers the conversation when it steered back toward the baby. “Wants to spoil the kid.”

Sara shakes with laughter, and Leonard frowns.

“He’ll be a good uncle.”

“I know he will,” Sara says. “It’s just… Leonard, you’re so drunk.”

He relaxes. “Yeah, I am. Haven’t been drinking enough. My tolerance is shot.”

Sara manages to free an arm and wrap it around him, and he makes a contented sound.

“You have work in the morning, Len, and so do I. Go to sleep.”

Leonard hums his agreement. Her breathing slows and his evens, and he’s pretty sure she’s asleep and he’s about to be. “I love you, Sara,” he mumbles, pulling her closer and giving in to sleep.


	11. Change My Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amazingly, there’s no smut in this chapter. My goal for this one was, “Awwww,” and I think I achieved it without ending up out of character ;)
> 
> [This picture](http://captainwhogotthecanary.tumblr.com/post/157876864899/friendly-reminder-of-how-adorable-leonard-found) is relevant to the second scene.

The work week passes uneventfully, save for brief worry and amusement at Leonard’s black eye. Sara’s morning sickness isn’t really better so much as she and Leonard have a better handle on what sets it off. Sometimes it’s nothing, but the crackers and lollipops and avoiding even the sight of raw meat all help enormously. Plus, with Kendra in the know, she has help at work. Kendra makes sure nobody surprises her with strong smells, and she makes sure she doesn’t bring anything for lunch that’s going to make Sara sick.

She has a good enough week that when they’re invited to a costume party happening that weekend, Sara passes the invitation on to Leonard.

“And why,” he drawls, “is anybody having a costume party in April?”

Sara shrugs. “It’s Ray. Are you really surprised?”

“I suppose not,” Leonard says. He’s studying her, and she knows he can see the excitement in her eyes.

“I haven’t been up to doing that much lately,” she says, and she sees the second he caves. “It’ll be fun.”

“With Raymond as host, I highly doubt that.” Leonard smirks when she makes a face at him.

“You like Ray just fine. Admit it.”

“I’d rather not,” he says dryly, and she knows it’s true.

He does like the guy, but he’s not going to admit it, not out loud, so she just smiles, waiting.

Leonard leans back against the counter. “Fine,” he says. “We’ll go to Raymond’s costume party.”

She wraps her arms around him, leaning into his chest, humming contentedly when he wraps his arms around her as well.

“Dare I ask what the theme is?” he asks, and Sara has to pull away so she can see his reaction.

“The theme is the Old West.”

His expression doesn’t disappoint, and as she dissolves into laughter, she wonders when it was she ended up so happy.

***

Leonard Snart doesn’t do cute. He really doesn’t.

But Sara Lance in a cowboy getup is downright adorable, and it takes a considerable amount of effort to keep the smile off his face when she comes out of the bedroom wearing it.

When she pulls out a fake gun and expertly spins it in one hand before aiming it at something on the kitchen counter, he loses his battle, grinning at the sight. She holsters the “weapon” and returns his smile before looking him up and down, the amusement in her eyes fading in favor of appreciation.

He knows he looks good. He’s wearing a black jacket, pants, and cowboy hat, with a deep blue shirt that brings out his eyes. There’s still a bit of discoloration where Mick landed a punch, but he thinks it adds to the look.

“We’d better go if we don’t want to be late,” Sara says, more than a trace of regret in her voice.

Leonard raises an eyebrow. “Maybe I don’t mind if we’re late.” He moves close and sets his hands on her waist, pulling her even closer to him. “In fact, if we got distracted entirely and forgot to go, who could blame us?”

“I feel _good_ today, Len. As nice as a distraction sounds”—she runs her hands down his chest in a way that is not helping her argument—“I really want to get out of the apartment for something other than work while I’m feeling well.”

“Hmmm.” He studies her. She’s looking up at him with her cowboy hat perched perfectly, red scarf tied neatly at her neck. He already knows he’s going to give in, but that doesn’t mean he can’t savor these minutes they have alone before they have to leave. He tilts his head so he can kiss her lips without knocking their hats out of the way.

She resists for a moment, her bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout, but when he sucks the lip into his mouth before gently grazing it with his teeth, she stops pretending, pulls him closer, and throws herself enthusiastically into the kiss.

“We should go,” he says, after they’ve been thoroughly distracted, their hats having fallen unnoticed to the floor. He smooths Sara’s hair while she watches him, exasperated.

“Well, _now_ I’d kinda rather the distraction first,” she says.

He grins again—and really, he’d wonder when he started smiling so much, but he already knows—and kisses her once more before ducking to grab their hats, settling hers back atop her head before replacing his own.

Leonard manages to school his expression into something neutral before he responds. “Don’t let my powers of seduction keep you from what you really want to be doing.”

Sara laughs. “Fine, then. If this isn’t going anywhere, we should head to Ray’s.”

***

In the car, Sara closes her eyes and lets her mind wander; she’s less likely to feel sick this way, she’s learned.

Her mind goes straight to last weekend, when Leonard crawled into bed drunk while she was asleep. Her memory is tinged by a sleepy haze, but she’s sure his last few words weren’t a product of her imagination.

_I love you, Sara._

Leonard was drunk, humorously so, but he sounded completely sincere when he made his declaration. He hasn’t been acting any differently, and she hasn’t brought it up, but she’s sure it happened.

And every time she thinks on it, she feels a thrill of giddiness, tempered only slightly by the fading fear that she’ll lose him.

She knows, on some level, that she’d normally be running right about now. It’s too much, or it should be, how much she feels for him, feelings he seems to return. There’s too much at stake, too many ways she could be hurt.

And yet, there’s never been more to gain. The path in front of her is one she never thought she’d have: a child, a _family_ with a partner who she loves and trusts, who seems to feel the same for her. She has a job she’s good at and a job she loves. She’s got a nice place to live, even if she does still need to make it look a little more lived in.

Now, they’re headed to a party, which should be fun, if more than a little on the nerdy side thanks to its host. Still, Ray’s a decent host, and he’s kind of loaded, so there’s lots of room and—

“Crap,” she says aloud, opening her eyes to look at Leonard. “There’s gonna be alcohol there.”

“It’s part of why I’m willing to go,” he teases.

“I can’t drink,” she reminds him, despite the fact that she doesn’t actually think he forgot. “Everyone’s gonna guess.”

“Nobody there’s going to give you a hard time if you don’t get a drink,” he tells her calmly. “Ray wouldn’t invite anyone like that.” He pauses. “Well, Mick might on a bad day, but he already knows.”

“Yeah.” She closes her eyes again.

She feels the car pull to a stop before he speaks again. “Hey.” She looks at him, unbuckling her seat belt. “Between me, Kendra, and Mick, you’ll be fine. Worst case scenario, almost everyone there is a friend. If we have to let more people in, there are worse crowds to do it with.”

“Yeah,” she says, forcing a smile. “Okay.” He squeezes her hand before they get out of the car.

She isn’t sure why she’s so reluctant for everybody to find out. It’s nothing to do with judgement; Leonard’s right that there are a great bunch of people who will be there.

It’s just… Okay, she’s been pregnant for a couple months, but it still feels so _new_ that she doesn’t really want to share. The baby is hers and Leonard's, and it won’t stay that way forever, but a little while longer would be nice.

Ray greets them at his apartment door. He’s clearly loving his own theme, making sure Sara sees his entire outfit before he compliments them on theirs, only then letting them far enough inside to shut the door.

It looks like they’re pretty much the last ones there, and Sara feels curious eyes on her and Leonard before she realizes they’re holding hands. They haven’t exactly been hiding their relationship, but this is their first time as a couple in a group of friends.

Kendra and Ray are used to seeing them together and don’t really react. Mick, too, has seen them as a couple. Hell, he had to see them acting like a couple before they even were one.

The curious-but-friendly looks come from the others. Felicity’s seen them together, but they’ve tried to stay professional when they’re at work, so there hasn’t exactly been a lot of PDA, despite things she may have heard; it’s way too easy to forget the comms are on. Ditto for Rory, who’s only seen them at the bank. She’s met Jefferson Jackson—Jax—and Professor Stein once before, briefly. Jax occasionally helps Leonard’s team with more mechanical jobs, and Stein is something between older brother and father for the kid. Definitely family, despite the lack of physical resemblance.

“I’m gonna go talk to Kendra,” Sara says, and Leonard nods. She lets go of his hand, and he crosses the room to Mick, who’s got a beer in hand, while Sara joins her friend.

“How are you feeling today?” Kendra asks quietly. “I made sure Ray didn’t use the air freshener he usually likes, told him it was giving me a headache.”

“Thanks,” says Sara, watching Ray explain something to Mick and Len using way more enthusiasm than seems necessary. Leonard meets her eyes, his own sparkling, and raises his beer bottle to her. She smiles. “I’m feeling pretty good today,” she answers finally, turning back to Kendra to see her friend grinning at her. “What?”

“You’re completely in love with him aren’t you?” Kendra’s expression makes it clear she’s not actually asking, that she’s already sure of the answer.

Sara looks back at Leonard, who’s trying to look annoyed at Ray. “I haven’t told him,” she says.

“But you are,” Kendra prompts. “Why haven’t you told him? Are you waiting for him to say it first?”

Sara huffs. “He did say it, but he was drunk. I don’t think he remembers.”

“So what’s the problem?” Kendra’s voice is gentle.

“It’s too fast, right? It’s too much.” Sara breathes. “Everything’s damned near perfect, Kendra, and I don’t know what I’ve done to earn it. I don’t know what I’d do if everything fell apart.”

“You can’t live afraid of losing what you have.” There’s a trace of pain Sara hasn’t heard in Kendra’s voice in some time, and she meets her friend’s eyes. “When I lost Carter…” She shakes her head. “Sometimes it’s so hard to relax and accept that maybe good things can happen, that maybe I can have a relationship that actually means something without losing my other half. But it’s not a way to live, Sara, being afraid all the time. You said it’s near perfect, but you’re going to miss out if you’re afraid of what might happen.”

Sara swallows and changes the subject, and Kendra watches her for only a second longer before following the conversation into work. While they talk, Sara idly watches Jax and Stein bicker over a game of pool they're playing against Felicity and Rory.

There's a knock at the door, and Ray opens it, letting in a few more guests.

“They're the last ones coming,” Kendra says. “Ray will want to get things started now.”

The newcomers aren't as familiar as the rest, and it takes Sara a minute to place them. She should know them all, but…

The skinny man in the bright red cowboy shirt approaches Leonard, and the two shake hands, and something about it makes the identities click for her.

It's Barry Allen and his girlfriend Iris, who is Joe’s daughter. With them is Barry's friend Cisco. Between Joe and Oliver, she's seen them all a time or two, but they haven't really met.

Sara's feet take her over to Barry before she decides to cross the room. She taps him on the shoulder, and when he turns, she pulls him into a tight hug. He laughs, somehow managing to sound happy and awkward at the same time, and she pulls away, swiping at tears she hasn't invited.

“Thank you,” she says, “for saving him.” More tears fall, and she curses until Leonard takes the few steps he needs to put his arm around her.

He couldn't have done that if Barry hadn't saved him.

“Oh, God,” she says aloud, turning and hiding her face in Leonard’s shoulder.

“Is she alright?” Barry asks, sounding concerned.

“She's fine,” Leonard says. He lowers his voice so it only reaches Sara’s ears. “Right?”

She nods against him, freezing when she hears Ray's voice, much too loud.

“What's wrong? Why's Sara crying? She never cries. Did somebody die??”

Sara can't help it; she laughs. “No, Ray, I'm okay. It's just been a long week and I got a little emotional, alright?”

“Okay…” Ray's attention shifts hesitantly between her, Leonard, and Barry before he brightens. “I know! Everyone needs shots. I'll be right back.”

“Shit,” Sara murmurs. She drags her attention to Barry, who's still standing in front of her looking uncertain, feeling some gratitude as Mick comes and stands on her other side. “Sorry, I didn't mean to break down on you.”

“Don't worry about it,” he says, waving. “Iris didn't exactly handle it well, you know. And if her dad had led the team instead of Leonard, it could've been so much worse. Joe said they would've walked right into an ambush.”

Sara feels herself tearing up again, and she takes a deep breath before exhaling it as forcefully as she can. When she sees Barry smiling at something over her shoulder, she turns to see Iris. She's chatting with Felicity and Jax, the game of pool seemingly abandoned.

Then Ray returns, and with Kendra’s help, he quickly passes out plastic cups with a generous amount of alcohol in them. Kendra takes her side of the room, skipping Sara, who nods gratefully.

Unfortunately, Ray notices, handing her another cup. Before she can protest, he starts in on some speech about how special everyone is and how glad he is they came, and any protest would only call more attention to her than the crying did. As the speech comes to a close with a teary, “I love you guys,” from Ray and a snarky, “You aren't even drunk yet,” from Leonard, the party starts drinking.

Sara looks around for somewhere to dump the alcohol or hide the cup; they're clear, so she can't just pretend it's empty. Before she can decide what to do, Mick grabs her glass and downs it before the others can see, handing it back to her without comment.

"Thank you," she says quietly, and he shrugs.

"More for me."

She sees Leonard smirk at him, and she settles into Leonard's side, not sure she's ever felt so cared for.

***

A few minutes after their drinks, Iris joins them, and Leonard stiffens as she reaches to give him a hug. She stops and takes his hand instead, and Sara leans into him soothingly.

“I wanted to say thank you,” Iris says. “I could've lost both the men I care about last week. And Cisco,” she adds, voice dismissive but a fond smile playing at her lips.

“It was the least I could do,” he says uncomfortably.

“It was more than a lot of people would've done,” Iris argues. “It was more than you had to.” She eyes him consideringly, in a way that makes him distinctly uncomfortable. She's shrewd, Leonard can tell, and he doubts she misses much. “My friend Kara wanted to do a story on that night,” she says.

“Why not you?” Sara asks, and Iris shifts her attention to her.

“Do you really want to know all the details about that night? Review the footage they recovered? See exactly what happened?”

Normally, he thinks she actually would; he knows Sara likes to study what went right and wrong in heists since it makes her better at her job. Now, though, she shakes her head.

“Exactly,” Iris says. “I could do it if I had to, but Kara’s good. I trust her to do the story right, without having to do it myself.” Barry puts an arm around Iris, and she smiles at him before switching her attention back to Leonard. “So what do you think? Can Kara set up an interview with you to talk about the rescue?”

He thinks about it for a minute before nodding. The story’s being told, anyway, and he can see it would mean a lot to Iris, and Barry by extension.

He owes the man a lot, despite the fact that Barry insists they’re already even. Without him, Leonard wouldn’t be here tonight.

Iris smiles. “Great. I’ll let her know. I can get your contact info from Ray on Monday?”

Leonard nods again, and Barry and Iris go join the people arguing animatedly around the pool table. When he peers that direction, he sees all the tech and science geeks have managed to find each other. They’re probably debating time travel or alternate earths; it seems a favored topic any time alcohol’s involved.

He turns back, and he, Mick, and Sara discuss their next job.

Another round of drinks gets passed around after Ray makes sure everyone is either staying the night or getting a taxi. Ray gives Sara an odd look when she tries to turn down the drink, but when Mick nudges her, she accepts without further argument.

Mick, of course, drinks it for her. Raymond isn’t being stingy with his portions, and Mick’s had at least twice as much as everyone else.

“Sara’s going to drink you under the table,” Leonard murmurs, and he’s treated to a laugh from his friend.

Between the drinks and the debate, the volume in the room is steadily rising, and he feels Sara tense next to him. With a look at Mick, Leonard leads Sara into the kitchen, effectively limiting most of the sound and line of sight.

“Are you alright?” he asks, looking down at her, and she nods.

“Yeah. It was just a lot, with Barry”—she tears up again for a second before getting her emotions back under control—“and all the drinking and the noise. Can we just stay in here for a few minutes? I’ll be back to myself soon.”

Wordlessly, he leans back against the counter and pulls her against him, her back to his front, so they can both relax. He runs his hands along her arms, then settles them over her stomach, the sounds of the party fading further.

Sara covers his hands with her own. “It changes so much, being pregnant. A baby’s going to change even more, isn’t it?”

“We probably won’t be doing much in the way of this sort of party,” Leonard says, knowing he’s only scratching the surface of what will change for them. “Though I’m sure Raymond would be happy to throw more kid-friendly ones.”

As if summoned, their host appears in the kitchen. He comes to a stop, his hand outstretched toward more plastic cups, his eyes dropping to where Leonard’s and Sara’s hands are still resting. Leonard can almost see the wheels turning as he puts together the clues he’s gotten that evening, from Sara crying to the attempted decline of alcohol to now.

The man’s almost glowing with excitement when the pieces click into place. “You’re—”

Raymond’s speaking way too loudly, and Leonard interrupts him before he can announce it to the whole apartment. “Watch your volume, Palmer.” Leonard makes sure the threats are implicit, and Ray’s eyes widen before he continues at a reasonable tone, though the excitement returns to his face.

“You’re having a baby? Together? Guys, that’s so great.” He reaches to pull Sara out of Leonard’s arms and into a hug, and to Leonard’s surprise, she accepts. Leonard’s even more surprised when he accepts a quick hug of his own from Raymond. “How far along are you?” he continues when he lets go. “Is it a boy or a girl? Oh! Can I help decorate the nursery?”

Sara’s laughing, and Leonard looks at her, relieved she isn’t too upset another of their friends has found out. He rests a hand on her shoulder, and she leans into his touch.

“I’m like ten weeks,” Sara answers, “and we don’t know yet whether it’s a boy or girl. We’re not quite to decorating the nursery yet, either.”

They should probably get the nursery painted soon, though, Leonard thinks. That way Sara can go in and out of the room without any trace of fumes.

“I get to be like the honorary uncle, right?” Raymond asks, his volume creeping upward again, and Leonard shakes his head.

“Not if you tell the whole party before we’re ready to announce it.”

“Oh! Sorry, I’m just so excited for you two.” He looks at Sara almost panicked. “Did you need something? Is that why you were in the kitchen? I can cook, if you’re hungry, or we can order something—”

“Ray.” This time, Sara’s the one to interrupt. “We just wanted to be alone for a minute or two. The party’s great, but I needed a sec.”

“Oh.” He shoves his hands in his pockets, looking between the two of them before his eyes widen again. “Oh! I’ll let you do that, then.” He grins. “Congratulations, you two.” With that, he turns and walks back out of the kitchen.

Sara turns so she’s facing Leonard, her face resting against his chest. “He automatically assumed the baby is yours and that it’s a good thing,” she says.

“It’s Raymond,” Leonard responds easily. “He probably won’t realize until later that he never actually asked.”

“You like him,” she teases, pulling back far enough to meet his eyes. “You even let him hug you.”

“Had to be the alcohol.” Leonard tucks a stray hair behind her ear and straightens her hat before he gives into the urge to kiss her. The contact is brief, but it seems to cement everything he already knows; he loves her so much that he feels it as an ache in his chest.

They rejoin the party just a couple minutes later, separating again. Sara chats with the geeks, and Leonard finds himself talking to Kendra.

“Your boyfriend knows,” he says quietly.

“Thank God,” Kendra breathes, and he chuckles. “Do you know how hard it was to hide that from him? But that man can’t keep a secret for anything, not when it’s something he’s excited about.” She eyes Leonard. “You’re telling people soon, right?”

He nods. “Next week’s another ultrasound, and we’re telling our families after. Not really a reason to keep it a secret after that point.”

“You get to tell the family you’re having a baby when you’re meeting them for the first time?” The sympathy in Kendra’s voice is obvious.

Leonard admits to himself that he’s a bit apprehensive. He’s never actually met the family of someone he was dating. He’s never helped someone announce a pregnancy, either.

They slip into discussing family, and time passes faster than he realizes.

After another round of drinks, things are pleasantly fuzzy for Leonard. He decides he’s done drinking for the night, while he’ll still be competent enough to call them a taxi when they’re ready to leave; he doesn’t particularly want to stay at Raymond’s all night, and Sara has been much too tired in the evenings to ask her to drive.

Of course, that’s when Ray announces he’s hung some dart boards specifically for this occasion.

***

Sara’s excited. She enjoys darts and considers herself pretty good at it. Plus, she’s the only one who’s sober, so even though Leonard is usually better than anyone here, she figures maybe she has a chance tonight, even with the modified rules Ray’s using.

When it’s her turn, she can feel Leonard watching her. He moves closer, not stopping until his chest is flush with her back, and he sets his hands on her hips. He rests his head on her left shoulder so she can still pull the dart back to her right.

She pauses before she throws, and it's not because of the contact or because he's making it harder, but because his words are ringing through her again.

_I love you, Sara._

He might not be saying it right now, but his actions have been screaming it all night.

She takes a deep breath and throws the dart, releasing it at just the right time, and it lands in the center circle with a satisfying thunk. Leonard presses a kiss to her cheek in congratulations, and she spins so she’s facing him.

“Your turn,” she says, grinning, but instead of taking his turn right away, he kisses her.

Thoroughly.

Sara’s glad they’ve taken off their hats by this point, and she’s breathless by the time they break apart to raucous cheers from the group.

“For luck,” he whispers, smirking.

Once Sara’s out of the way, he throws, and the dart lands dead center, just millimeters better than Sara’s.

“We have a winner for the first round!” Ray declares a touch too enthusiastically, and when Sara looks at him, he’s grinning much too widely.

“Next round,” Sara announces, pulling Ray’s attention off herself and Leonard.

Leonard ends up winning, but not by that much. Sara’s tied with Mick for second place, with Jax close behind them. Surprisingly, even with the alcohol, nobody actually does badly.

The party starts winding down, though nobody leaves. Instead, people are finding places to relax. Sara claims one end of a sofa for herself and Leonard, leaning back against him and enjoying the feel of his arms around her. Felicity and Rory sit nearby. They’re clearly comfortable with each other, but they sit a respectable distance apart. Friends, Sara thinks.

They talk about work because it’s easy and because security is something they have in common. Jax joins them after a few minutes, and he and Leonard get into some debate about the best way to disable an electronic safe. Felicity offers a third opinion, and Sara just meets Rory’s tolerant smile with one of her own.

After a few minutes, she feels her eyes drifting shut. She fights it, because she’s enjoying herself, surrounded by friends who are feeling more like family, but when Leonard stops talking long enough to whisper that it’s okay, she gives up, sinking into sleep still warm in her lover’s arms.

***

Sara falls asleep against him, and their friends lower their voices but continue their conversations. He catches a sappy grin from Raymond, and he glares at the man until he finds something else to do.

Leonard thought, not too long ago, that being with Sara felt like being home for the first time. As he listens to his friends talk, he realizes it’s not just Sara who makes him feel that way, especially now that he’s mended things with Mick. She’s helped him lower his guard, though, and now, all these people feel like they’re a part of him.

He should probably hate it, but instead, it just pulls his thoughts to the fact that his circle will grow even more in less than seven months.

He’ll have a family, officially, beyond just himself and Lisa.

He’s not sure how Lisa will react to the news. He thinks she’ll probably be excited for them, as long as she knows Leonard is excited.

And he is. He’s surprised, even, at just how much he’s looking forward to next week’s glimpse of their child.

His mind wanders a while longer before he realizes how late it is. Felicity has fallen asleep, too, and it looks like Jax and Stein have left or found rooms.

“We should get home,” Leonard announces, gently waking Sara.

“I’ll walk you out while you wait for a ride,” Ray volunteers, and Leonard fights the urge to roll his eyes.

At least it’ll give the man a chance to talk about the baby more without tipping off all their friends.

Ray starts as soon as they’re outside, with Sara leaning sleepily against Leonard. “How do you feel about gifts? I’m not talking about anything big, just, I know some people think gifts too early are bad luck, so I wanted to check before…” He trails off for a moment, blinking. “Hey, you said ten weeks? That was fast. Didn’t you only meet like ten weeks ago?”

“Eleven,” Sara says mildly, in that way she has that still makes her sound dangerous. Leonard tugs her closer to him. “Are you really asking for details about our sex life?”

“No,” Ray says quickly. “It’s just that… I mean, I assumed you two were happy about it, but I’m guessing it wasn’t planned, so—”

“We’re happy, Raymond,” Leonard says, and Ray relaxes.

“Good. I mean, I know it’s not really any of my business, I’m just so excited, and I didn’t want to keep going on about how happy it was if it wasn’t actually happy.”

“Appreciated,” Leonard drawls, and Ray takes it as a cue to continue rambling until the taxi comes.

Despite Leonard’s attempt at annoyance, though, he and Sara are both smiling by the time they get into the cab and head home.

***

They make it home safely, and the days pass, blissfully smooth. Toward the end of the week, Kara Danvers comes to his office to conduct her interview. She isn’t what Leonard expects.

She looks quiet, shy, unassuming. She’s gorgeous, but the way she carries herself means she probably blends into crowds more often than not.

When they get past the pleasantries and into the interview, though, her passion takes him off guard. She pulls the answers from him, smiling encouragingly any time he hesitates. They’re finished before he knows it, and Kara glances back over her notes before standing.

“Thank you, Mr. Snart,” she says, reaching out her hand.

“Leonard,” he corrects, shaking it.

“Leonard.” Kara smiles. “I’ll make sure you get a preview copy before it goes to press.”

“Thank you,” he says. As she turns to leave, he speaks again. “Next time there’s a get together, make sure Iris gets you an invite. I think you’d fit right in.”

“Okay,” Kara says, adjusting her glasses. “I’ll do that.”

She leaves, and Leonard tries to shift his focus back to work, but instead, he finds himself looking at a picture Ray texted him earlier in the week. It’s from the dart game, right after Sara made her shot but before they kissed. She’s grinning up at him like he’s everything, and he’s looking down at her the same way.

He debates with himself for a few minutes—what he’s considering is surely much too sappy for Leonard Snart—before emailing himself the photo and saving it as his desktop wallpaper. He looks at it for another minute, the way her eyes shine and her face glows with laughter, and then, with a satisfied nod, he finally switches to work.


	12. It Feels Like Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is way too long. I’ve been informed that’s only a good thing, so I won’t apologize ;)
> 
> Also, it wasn’t written for it but works as a fill for @ficcingcaptaincanary’s “Shopping” prompt this week.
> 
> Also also, some lines from the equivalent Legends of Tomorrow episode, and one line from “Hearts Don’t Break Around Here.”
> 
> Lastly, long sex scene near the middle of the chapter, with some borderline NSFW bits leading up to it.

“Shit.” Sara stares into the mirror, her hands still on the undone button of her pants.

“What is it?” Leonard’s finishing off the buttons on his shirt as he joins her in front of the mirror.

“My pants won’t button,” she says, turning to the side, dimly aware of how Leonard stills, the majority of her attention on her abdomen.

She’s showing.

It’s slight, and she wouldn’t have even noticed if she hadn’t been unable to do up her pants, but, she decides as she pushes the clothing out of the way so she can see, it’s unmistakable for anything else. She’s pregnant, and there’s finally external, visible proof.

Leonard reaches out and settles his hand on her belly. The protrusion is so small that once his hand is on there, Sara can’t even see it. Still, when she looks back in the mirror and he meets her eyes in the reflection, it feels like it’s huge.

Emotionally, that is, not like she’ll actually be in a few months.

She turns to face him. “These are some of my loosest pants,” she complains. “I can make a few outfits work for the rest of the week, but I’ve got nothing to wear to Laurel’s on Saturday.”

He tugs her to him, and she goes with a sigh.

“Figure out today,” he says. “After work, we’ll go pick out something you can wear to your sister’s.”

Sara lets herself be held for a few more seconds, then crosses to the closet, hand falling automatically to her stomach, allowing herself to process while she picks out clothes for work. She's showing so little that she's pretty sure, despite how obvious it is to her and Leonard, it would look like a big meal to anyone else. But her clothes are usually tight, and besides…

It feels like a big deal. It makes everything more real, again.

She finds a dress that's a little baggy and conservative and pairs it with some dark leggings, and when she's dressed, she turns to see Leonard is watching her again, having finished getting ready.

“What?” she asks.

“I was remembering the last time I saw you in a dress.”

She doesn't wear dresses often, so it only takes her a few seconds to remember when he’s talking about. He steps close, pulling her so her stomach is against him, keeping his hands at her waist. He bends his head, looking down at where their bodies make contact, just the tiniest bit sooner than they would have a couple months ago. Instead of looking down with him, she watches his face.

“You were gorgeous,” he murmurs. “I didn’t know which I wanted more, to look or to touch.”

“You touched,” she breathes. “A lot.”

He slides his hand across her covered lower back, then lifts his eyes to hers. “Best decision I ever made.”

Sara inhales. That was the night they accidentally created a new life, the night they tied their own lives together irrevocably. She exhales shakily and kisses him, leaning into it, closing her eyes so she can properly enjoy the feeling of his hand on her back, his other behind her neck, their bodies pressing together as their lips move in harmony.

The alarm on her phone pulls them abruptly out of it. Sara leans against his chest before backing away and silencing the ill-timed noise. “We need to leave now to make it to work on time.”

He draws her close for another kiss, until she pushes him away gently, regretfully. “We could call in sick,” he suggests, his voice low and much too tempting.

She swallows and shakes her head. “I need to save up on leave before the baby comes.”

Some of the heat leaves Leonard’s gaze at that, and they’re able to make it to work on time. Sara’s distracted all day, though, her imagination working together with her memory to taunt her about what she could’ve had that morning.

By the time she slides into the passenger seat of Leonard’s car, she’s ready to try to jump him in the parking lot. Judging by the way his eyes drag over her body, he’s feeling the same, so Sara is shocked when he drives them to the mall instead of to their apartment.

He notices her surprise. “I thought this was the plan. This way, you have something to wear to work tomorrow, and something to wear on Saturday.” The way he looks over her again is both frustrating and reassuring; he’s clearly feeling the _want_ just as much as she is, and yet, he doesn’t seem to be planning to do anything about it until they’ve gone _shopping._ “I considered taking you home first, but I’m hoping to take my time tonight.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Maybe they aren't the most eloquent words ever, but his words coupled with the look he's using to pin her in place mean she's rather proud of herself for saying anything coherent at all.

She fumbles for the door handle, missing twice before she manages to get out of the car. They walk inside, Sara putting probably way too much effort into focusing on their task.

When they enter the maternity store, her thoughts are finally pulled away from sex.

She comes to a stop just inside the store, staring at the selection displayed on mannequins depicting various degrees of pregnancy. Leonard comes up behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders. She looks back at him, and he looks as shell-shocked as she feels.

“First time?” The sales associate’s kind voice makes Sara jump.

“Yeah,” she answers, turning back to the woman.

The employee walks them through questions to narrow down their selection, and before she knows it, Sara’s in the small fitting room with a few different work pants, some nice blouses, and a dress she grabbed without letting herself overthink it. She tries on the pants first, quickly narrowing them down to one pair she'll be able to wear often without it being conspicuous; they have a stretchy waist, but one that blends in, so they don't look like maternity pants at all. The shirts are easy to narrow down, as well. The ones that will make her look pregnant too quickly go, as do ones that won't last past the halfway point.

When she slips on the dress, she stops, studying her reflection in the mirror.

It's lace, which isn't usually her thing, but this suits her. The dress is a deep blue with subtle patterning. The sleeves and hem show off the lacy design. The neckline comes just low enough to be enticing without being revealing, and the dress is cut so that she'll be able to fit in it for most of the pregnancy, maybe even all of it, but it still looks good on her now.

She hesitates before eyeing the fake stomachs provided to let customers visualize different stages of pregnancy. She slips on one that adds a few months to where she is now, then studies the mirror again.

It's all she can do not to cry. She must make some sound—or maybe it's just that she's taking a while—because Leonard raps lightly at the door.

***

“Everything okay?” he asks. She opens the door rather than answering, and he takes in her appearance, his mouth going dry for too many reasons to name.

“You grew,” he manages stupidly.

The dress looks good on her, but his eyes are drawn repeatedly to the soft curve at her stomach. He knows it's fake, obviously, but soon enough, she’ll actually look like that.

“I’m gonna grow a whole kid in here,” she says, echoing his thoughts. She looks…

Well, she looks gorgeous, but she also seems like she can’t decide between ecstatic or terrified, and it’s as natural as breathing for him to step forward and wrap her into a hug. She relaxes immediately, and he can’t quite help compare how she is with him to how she is with others. She hugged a few friends at the party last week, but she never relaxed quite like she does with him.

And he’s never found physical affection natural or easy.

He brings his mind back to the present, and he slides his hand to the cushion on her stomach, the lumpiness on contact helping ground him in reality. He turns so they can both see in the mirror.

“How far along is this?” he asks.

“Six months,” Sara answers, watching her reflection, standing straight so she can smooth out the dress. “Hold on, here’s without the belly.” She pulls the cushion out of the way, and the dress falls back into place.

She’s still gorgeous, but there’s enough extra material that there’s no sign of her actual pregnancy, not this early. Just thinking about it, though, is enough to bring him back to that morning, to the slight roundness of her stomach.

The fact that she’s starting to show, pregnant with a child they made together, however unintentionally, affects him more than he expected. It’s not that he’s turned on by it, not directly; he knows there are people with pregnancy kinks, but he doesn’t think he’s one of them.

It’s the fact that it’s Sara, that it’s proof she’s carrying his baby.

It’s also how easy it makes it to remember how the baby got there in the first place.

“Do you think this works for visiting Laurel?” Sara asks. She seems more herself now that the padding is gone, less shaken, and Leonard takes the opportunity to run his eyes deliberately over her body, lingering where the dress softly accentuates her breasts, her hips, highlights her strong, slender legs, legs that he knows exactly how good they feel wrapped around his waist while he thrusts into her.

Shit.

“Yes,” he tells her, painfully aware that his plan to get her riled back up in the best way has backfired spectacularly. He doesn’t add more, meeting her eyes instead and letting his expression speak.

“Okay.” She swallows. “Then I’m getting this dress, these shirts, and this pair of pants.”

Leonard picks up the shirt and pants she indicated and backs out of the dressing room so she can change. There’s no way he’d be able to keep his hands off her if he stayed in there while she got undressed, and they probably shouldn’t get kicked out of the maternity store with so much pregnancy left to go.

He starts toward the register, planning to pay for the clothing, then pauses as he realizes she probably wouldn’t appreciate that. They’ll have to talk about money, but they haven’t really, not yet, not beyond alternating grocery trips. He knows she’ll get upset if he just assumes he can pay for her work wardrobe.

When she joins him, dress draped over her arm, she reaches for her other purchases, and he knows he was right. He hands her the clothes, but speaks quietly before she can move to the register.

“I’m sure you want to buy your own clothes,” he says, “but it’s at least partly my fault you need them in the first place. Can I buy you the dress?”

She thinks for a moment before nodding. “Okay,” she says, handing it to him. They pay and leave the shop, stopping again almost immediately when they both slow in front of a store displaying infant clothing near the front. “I know it’s early,” Sara says, “but we could look.”

It might not be the best idea they’ve ever had. They find the newborn clothing, and the size of it—or rather, the lack of size—is more than a little overwhelming.

When Sara realizes that one of the little shirts fits easily in Leonard’s hand, she tears up again. He quickly puts it away, and they start to leave, only to pause by a display near the register. There are tiny jackets, all on sale with the changing weather. Both of them reach for one at the same time, and Sara laughs.

“Should we get it?” she asks.

“It’s blue. We don’t know we’re having a boy.”

He keeps looking at the jacket, though, not sure why he likes it so much. It looks warm, and the hood is fuzzy.

“It’s like a parka,” Sara says. She turns to a woman waiting to check out, who’s holding an infant in one arm and grasping the hand of a pink-clad toddler on the other side. “A girl can wear a blue jacket, right?”

The woman smiles. “Sure. Honestly, my daughter was mistaken for a boy as often in pink as in any other color.”

“See,” Sara says triumphantly, turning back to Leonard. “And look,” she adds, grabbing a onesie from a neighboring stand, white with a fuzzy canary on front. “This is neutral, too, but a little on the girlier side. They’ll balance each other out.”

He doesn’t have any intention to object to her purchases, but any potential argument fades at the excitement in her expression. She isn’t crying, doesn’t look overwhelmed or afraid. In this moment, she’s simply happy they’re buying something for their child.

“Whatever you say,” he responds evenly, and she grins, probably not fooled in the slightest. She hands him the clothing while she goes to grab her wallet, but she’s interrupted when the woman at the register addresses her again.

“Can you hold him for me while I pay?” she asks, lifting the baby gently to indicate who she’s talking about.

“I don’t…” Sara looks at Leonard before looking back at the woman.

“I heard you talking. You’re pregnant, right? Your first?” She continues when Sara nods. “The first thing you have to learn if you don’t want to lose your mind is to ask for help if you need it.”

With the woman all but saying she _needs_ Sara to hold the baby so she can pay, Leonard isn’t surprised when Sara reaches out her arms. The woman transfers the baby carefully, and something about the way she does it makes Leonard think she’s going slow more for Sara’s benefit than for her own.

“You’re not gonna break him,” she says reassuringly as she lets go, the baby entirely in Sara’s arms. “His name’s Leo.” She turns away and starts chatting with the cashier, glancing back with some regularity to make sure Sara’s comfortable.

Which leaves Sara holding an infant who can’t be more than a month old, if that. Leonard watches, transfixed, as she looks down at him. When the baby opens his eyes and peers up at her, she smiles.

“Oh, look at those little cheeks,” she coos. “You are the cutest little baby in the world.”

Leonard doesn't actually think the kid looks like anything all that special. He’s sure he’ll feel different when it’s his own, but he’s rather of the opinion that all babies look the same. Even Lisa had just looked like a baby until she was old enough to start looking like his sister.

But Sara’s the one holding the baby. He’s accepted for some time that things are different with her, and yet, he finds himself floored once more at the depth of his emotion as he pictures her with another child, _their_ child.

She hands the baby back to its mother, then turns to Leonard, and he swears she’s glowing.

***

They leave with their purchases. Leonard lets her buy the outfit on the condition that she lets him make the purchases at their next stop, which he won’t disclose before she agrees.

“I went by ‘Leo,’ when I was a kid,” Leonard comments as they walk. “Until Lisa was little. It was easier for her to say ‘Lenny.’”

Sara takes his hand. She’s often unsure what to say when he talks about the good parts of his childhood. Her own wasn’t anything like perfect, but even the worst parts hardly compared. It’s like his childhood was proof of how bad her own could have been, with an alcoholic police officer for a father and eventually an absent mother.

Sara’s life got better after a rough patch in her teen years. Her father and sister both got their vices under control. Leonard raised a kid basically on his own, until he finally got help from another troubled teen.

She blinks away unshed tears before responding, going for light so she doesn’t ruin their day. “I like Lenny. Should I call you that? Lenny?”

“Only my sister calls me that,” he says, shooting a mock glare in her direction. “I really don’t want to end up thinking about Lisa while you’re screaming my name.”

Well, there goes any attempt at thinking serious thoughts.

“Good point,” she manages, slowing when she sees they're entering a home improvement and decor store. “What do we need here?”

“I thought maybe you could go out with Kendra on Friday night, and I’d paint the nursery,” he says, watching her. “We’ll be out of the house all day Saturday, so it seemed like a good opportunity.”

The nursery.

Sara’s known it’ll be turned into a nursery, but up until now, the other bedroom in Leonard’s apartment has just been the guest room. Picking paint for the baby knocks it firmly out of guest room status.

“It’s not too soon?” she asks.

Leonard shakes his head. “We’ll probably be in and out more often the closer we get,” he says. “It makes sense to get the painting over with so you don’t have to worry about the fumes when we start seriously getting it ready.”

“You’ve thought about this.” Sara lets herself be led to the paint section. It’s not as big a selection as a standalone home improvement store could boast, but at a glance, she thinks the colors are all appealing.

“You haven’t?” Leonard returns.

She shrugs a shoulder. “Yeah, but more in a vague, ‘we’ll have to do this eventually’ sort of way.” She smiles. “I know that’s not the way you do things.”

Sara turns her attention to the color selection. She searches for a color that’s relaxing, neutral or close to it, that will fit in with Leonard’s existing decor. Bright yellows and greens would be way too off-putting, almost a shock stepping into the nursery after the unoffensive walls in the rest of the apartment. She and Leonard get it narrowed down to a soft green and a slate gray.

“I have an idea,” Sara says, grabbing two small cans of paint, one pink and one blue, and setting them on either side of the gray. “We do the gray, and we put a stripe around the middle once we know whether we’re having a boy or a girl. Gives it a splash of color without being obnoxious.” She bites her lip. “What do you think?”

Leonard studies the paints next to each other before nodding and stacking them to make them easy to carry. “You have good taste,” he says.

Sara hums noncommittally. “I mean, I did decide to hook up with you. I’m not sure whether that proves or argues your point.”

“Proves,” he says easily, and she kisses his cheek as he gathers up the paints. Sara picks up the other painting supplies they’ll need, and they head to the register.

Once they’re in the car, it’s like Leonard remembers he’s been keeping her in a state of need all day; he leans across the center console to kiss her, tasting and touching and caressing until she forgets where they are, forgets that her hands shouldn’t be pulling at his shirt, that she shouldn’t be moaning into his mouth at the simple slide of his fingertips over thin cloth as they trail further up her thighs.

At least, she forgets until a car horn honks elsewhere in the parking lot, and she breaks away, panting, fixing immediately on how dark Leonard’s eyes are right now.

There’s only one thing she can say: “Take me home.”

***

Sara glares at him while she eats dinner, the look quelling only slightly at the reminder that he wants to take his time, and it’ll be better for her if she isn’t hungry or nauseated.

After what seems like hours—and really, that’s not a stretch since they’ve been wanting this all day—he’s finally watching Sara crawl into their bed, completely naked.

He takes off his own clothes, reveling in the way she watches him. He joins her on the bed, kissing her deeply before pulling away.

“Roll over,” he says. Sara raises an eyebrow. “Trust me.”

She swallows and rolls onto her stomach. After a moment’s hesitation, he slips a thin pillow under her hips. It'll give him better access, and if there's any potential harm in her being on her stomach, this takes the weight off.

He moves over her, his knees resting on the mattress beside her back, and he starts at her shoulders, massaging as best he can, working out as much tension as possible.

“Mmmm,” Sara groans. “This is really good, but it isn't sex.” She sounds unsure whether or not she's okay with this.

Leonard bends down close to her ear. “Patience,” he says in a low voice.

He moves lower, letting his thumbs work through the tightness along her spine as his fingers caress her sides. When his fingers dip low, caressing her breasts, she tenses in anticipation.

He moves his hands back near her shoulder blades. “You got tense. Let me help you with that again.” He repeats his movements, and this time, though she sucks in a breath, she manages to stay relaxed, so he continues down her back. The only reason he knows she's still awake is that she's making little moans that are entirely too distracting.

He reaches her ass, and he massages that, too, before moving lower still. He starts on one leg, sliding his fingers between her thighs, coming as close as possible to her without actually touching anything clearly sexual.

He can feel how hot and wet she is, though, and it takes all of his self-control to continue with his plan. He moves all the way down her leg and along her calf before moving back up to the junction of her thighs.

Sara makes an almost desperate whimper when he still doesn't make contact.

“Patience,” he repeats. He moves down her other leg, even more slowly. When he finishes, he trails his fingers along her, over her calf, her thigh, slipping almost between her legs before sliding up a smooth cheek. His fingers dance along her spine, and he can hear how much effort she’s putting into keeping her breathing steady. He places a careful kiss to one shoulder, then moves to her side.

“Roll over,” he says. Sara listens, and as soon as he’s over her once more, she pulls him back down for a kiss, which he returns hungrily until her hands slide down his back with intent. He stops kissing her, and she stills. “I’m not done,” he says. Her usually bright eyes are the darkest he’s seen, and he kisses her again once, quick and hard, before looking down at her again. “Okay?”

At her nod, he takes her hands off him and presses them gently to the mattress before moving his attentions to her shoulders. He resumes his massage, working down one arm until he reaches her fingertips, making a point to brush the side of her breast any time he’s close. He moves to the other side, and by the time he reaches her fingers, Sara looks desperate.

Leonard can’t help ducking in for another kiss before he continues his slow torture.

He massages under her collarbone, his touch getting softer the nearer he gets to her tender breasts. He turns his hands over, caressing her with the backs of his fingers, circling ever-closer to her nipples. He lets himself just barely graze them, her sharp intake of breath completely worth how much he’s delaying things for them both.

He moves lower, sliding his fingertips along her sides, making sure he uses enough pressure to keep from tickling her, then traces an imaginary panty line just under her stomach. She pushes her hips up into his touch, and he presses an open kiss to her thigh.

“Almost.”

“I’m getting revenge someday if I survive this,” she pants, and he grins against her skin.

“I look forward to it,” he says. “For now, just relax.”

“Relax, right.” He sees her hands clutch at the sheets before she relaxes again, and he takes that as his cue to continue.

Leonard pulls her legs apart slightly, and she squirms at the touch. He uses both hands to start massaging one thigh, letting his finger brush ever-so-briefly against her clit, making Sara curse. He repeats his earlier actions, working his way slowly, slowly down her leg, then moving back to the top of the other. When he brushes against her again, she whimpers.

“Len…”

He’s never heard quite so much need in her voice, and he has to press himself into the mattress for a moment to maintain his control. He kisses her thigh again and makes his way down, being sure to touch every inch of skin. He takes a steadying breath when he runs out of leg. Instead of moving right back to where he started, he reverses the massage, moving up her calf, along her thigh, lifting one finger as he nears her junction and letting it slip inside her.

“Oh God.” Sara tries to buck into him, take his finger deeper, but he keeps his hands still until she stops moving. He dips just a little deeper before pulling back and sliding back down to the other ankle. “Please, Leonard.”

He won’t keep her waiting much longer, isn’t sure he could even if he wanted to. He moves just a little more quickly up her leg this time, sliding a long finger inside her again at the end. For a minute, he can only watch her.

She’s so beautiful, and she trusts him so much, letting him lead tonight, letting him take care of her while driving her crazy.

He adjusts his hands, turning the one inside her and adding another finger and the help of the heel of his hand, stroking her until she contracts around him with a gasp. He draws it out, easier than usual with how long he’s been teasing her, until she falls limp against the mattress.

Leonard gently withdraws and moves up her body, kissing her soundly when he reaches her lips. He waits until she’s no longer boneless, until she’s trying to cling to him and pull him closer, before he finally, _finally_ slides himself inside her. She arches up against him, and he starts up a slow rhythm.

He’s never felt her so wet before, and she’s already fluttering around him like she’s close to another orgasm. He lets the feeling settle into his bones, how right, how _good_ this feels, and when it seems like this has always been his life and always will be, he lets go, speeding up until he loses his rhythm, and as he spills himself inside her, she comes hard, pulling everything out of him.

He’s still inside her when he kisses her again, soft and slow, determined to show her how he feels, just in case he hasn’t made that clear.

She kisses him back just the same.

***

Leonard finds the obstetrician’s waiting room a little awkward. He shouldn’t, he doesn’t think, but for the first time, he finds himself thinking about a particular exchange of rings.

At least then, people might look at him and see someone more than a guy Sara definitely had sex with.

He doesn’t let himself think about it beyond that aspect; there are far too many people around to consider something so personal. Instead, he flips through the informative book available on the table next to him. He sees the various stages of pregnancy, things he’s already vaguely aware of from his own research, and then he reaches the section on labor and delivery.

The women pictured are clearly in a lot of pain, and he hastily sets the book back down before his mind can follow that particular train of thought and what it means for the woman he loves.

Sara’s tapping her foot, clearly not much more comfortable than he is, and he searches for something to distract them both.

“What time are you heading to Kendra’s tonight?”

She blinks before turning to him. “Crap, I forgot to tell you, Ray wants to come over and help you and Mick paint the nursery. I guess he asked Kendra why I was coming over, and…” She shrugs. “I don’t need to tell him no, do I?”

“The more, the merrier,” Leonard says sarcastically, but Sara relaxes anyway.

It’s like she knows how much he wants to go along with whatever will make her happy.

“I suppose it won’t really make a difference,” he adds. “Might make the painting go faster.”

A smile plays at Sara’s lips. “I can’t actually picture Mick helping paint a nursery.”

Leonard chuckles. “He didn’t even let me finish asking him to help. I told him I was painting, and he told me he’d bring the beer.”

“Sara?” Lindsey, the nurse from last time, calls her back. Leonard follows, listening carefully to all Sara’s answers once they’re in the room.

She’s gaining enough weight, but only just, and he makes a note to ask whether she’s been craving anything, whether she thinks she’ll be able to get more food down if it’s something specific. Nothing else concerns him, and the nurse seems happy with Sara’s responses.

“Okay,” she says cheerily, “I’ll just leave you two in here. Dr. Snow will be in shortly. As long as you can pull your shirt up, you won’t need to undress this time.”

“I’m good,” Sara says, fiddling with the hem of her new shirt until Leonard takes her hand. When they’re alone, she exhales forcefully, gripping his hand. “Why am I nervous? We’ve done this already, right? And I would know if something was wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he answers. She meets his eyes. She doesn’t look panicked, at least, just a little uncertain. “We’ll get a good picture to show our families tomorrow, and then we’ll head home.”

The doctor enters with a polite knock before they can speak further. She looks between him and Sara before smiling, looking genuinely happy at whatever she sees.

“How are you doing, Sara?”

Like last time, Dr. Snow repeats some of the questions Sara’s already answered. He suspects it’s procedure rather than laziness or incompetence.

“Go ahead and lay back and pull up your shirt,” the doctor instructs. “Do you have any plans for the weekend?” She starts readying the gel and the machine.

“We’re going to tell our families,” Sara says. The woman eyes her measuringly before returning to her task. “What about you, Dr. Snow?”

“Caitlin, please,” she says, reiterating her invitation from last visit. “This gel might tingle a little because we keep it warm. No cold bellies for us.” She squirts some on Sara’s exposed abdomen. “I am going to be spending time with a few friends. I believe you actually know some of them; Barry told me he was at a party last week, and your names came up.” She smiles. “Only on his end, of course. I didn’t mention you were a patient.”

“You know Barry?” Sara sounds a little like she might cry again, and Leonard squeezes her hand, hiding a smile when Caitlin glances at him, humor in her eyes.

“Yes. I spend a fair amount of time at S.T.A.R. Labs with him, Cisco, and Harry. Okay, here we are.”

On the screen is their baby, and unlike last time, it actually looks something like a baby.

“It’s not a blob anymore,” Sara breathes, echoing Leonard’s thoughts.

“Nope,” Caitlin agrees calmly, moving the wand over Sara’s stomach.

As they watch, the baby moves. It’s slight but definite.

“Can you feel that?” Leonard asks quietly.

Sara shakes her head.

“You’ll likely be able to start feeling movements in a month or so,” Dr. Snow tells Sara. “Some can feel it before then, and some not until the middle of the pregnancy. It’s totally normal not to feel anything yet.”

“Except tired,” Sara quips. “I feel that plenty.”

Dr. Snow smiles. “Everything looks good,” she explains. “Definitely just one baby in there. Fetal growth is right where it should be, due date’s on track. And…” She presses a few keys on the machine, and then the picture freezes as a rhythmic whooshing noise starts. “There’s your baby’s heartbeat.”

Awe. There’s no other word to describe how he’s feeling, looking at an image of their child while hearing its heart beat. It’s just one more piece of evidence that there’s a baby growing inside Sara.

Sara sniffs, and Leonard tears his attention away from the monitor, seeing a tear on her cheek just before she swipes at it.

“I’m always crying,” she complains.

Caitlin removes the wand and wipes down Sara’s stomach. “That’s normal, too. Actually, I’ve seen my share of fathers cry at this, so it’s not just the hormones.”

Leonard isn’t crying. His cheeks are dry, and if his eyes sting, it’s only from the dry air in the exam room.

***

That evening, Sara slips the newest ultrasound photo into an envelope and puts it carefully in her purse. Mick and Leonard are sitting on the couch, nursing beers. There's a knock at the door.

“That'll be Ray,” Sara says.

“Still can't believe Haircut’s coming,” Mick says.

“Be nice,” she says idly, opening the door.

“Hi,” Ray says brightly. “Kendra is waiting for you at our apartment, but I wanted to give you and Leonard something before you go.” Ray comes inside, and Leonard gets off the couch to join them.

“Is it beer?” Mick calls from where he remains sitting. “Beer is good.”

“I didn’t bring beer for a pregnant woman.” Ray sounds appalled. He hands Sara a small box, then waits expectantly. She looks at Leonard before opening it.

It’s a wooden block, the kind small kids can play with. On one side is an S, and opposite is an L. There’s a standard rattle and duck on two sides, and the final two have short sentences:

_Waverider’s littlest member_

_You are SO loved_

Tears press at her eyes when she looks up at Ray, who’s looking suddenly nervous.

“I thought the S and L made sense because you two have the same first and last initials, so it works all around, and with you both working with Waverider Industries, I thought—”

“I love it, Ray.” Sara hands the block to Leonard so he can look at it while she flings her arms around Ray’s neck.

“Oh. Okay, good,” he says, chuckling.

She lets go and sees Leonard smiling softly at the block before he realizes he’s being watched and quickly adopts a neutral look. Sara takes the block from him and sets it on the bookshelf with all the photos before returning to Leonard and Ray.

“Thank you, Ray,” she says. “Really.” She turns to Leonard, and Ray joins Mick on the couch.

“You're sure you're feeling well enough to drive?” Leonard asks, a gentle hand on Sara’s arm.

She might've been annoyed at the question if he didn't look so damned sincere and concerned. Instead, she rests a hand on his chest and leans up to kiss him.

“I'll be fine. If I get too tired, I'll call or have Kendra give me a ride.”

“Alright,” he says. “Have fun.”

“You, too.” She kisses him one last time, then watches him cross the room to join Ray and Mick, who are already bickering about something. She smiles and slips out the door.

***

Painting actually goes surprisingly well. Leonard finds himself relaxing more than usual with the two men, listening as they argue about the right way to paint the room.

Leonard doesn’t really care as long as it gets done. The paint is forgiving enough that there’s no real difference between Ray’s method and Mick’s.

“So,” Ray says when they’re almost done, “you and Sara, are you getting married?”

Leonard stills, watching a trickle of paint slide from the edge of the roller and start creeping down the wall. He resumes the easy, repetitive motion, making sure to smooth out the errant streak of paint.

“We haven’t talked about that,” he says.

“Well, have you thought about it?”

He hasn’t really, not in any detail. The closest he got was today in the waiting room. It’s not from lack of desire, though.

It’s rather the opposite.

Any time his thoughts stray in that general direction, he’s filled with an odd mix of contentment and longing, when what he expects is fear and reluctance.

“She’s carrying my kid, Raymond. Of course I’ve thought about it.”

Ray’s voice is softer, like he knows he’s treading on dangerous ground, and Mick just listens. “Are you planning to do anything about it?”

Leonard sets down his roller in one of the aluminum tins and crosses his arms, not sure why he’s bothering to respond, but not feeling like he can avoid the question.

“It can’t just be about the kid,” he says. “I need to know it’s about more than that. I need _her_ to know it’s about more than that.”

Ray nods, and after a moment’s silence, he changes the subject.

***

The next morning, Sara closes her eyes as they pull into a parking spot near Laurel’s apartment. They decided it would be easier to get everything over with at once, so her dad and Leonard’s sister will both be getting here soon, too, if they’re not here already.

“Do I get to see the nursery when we get home?” she asks, distracting herself. The door had been closed when she got home from Kendra’s, and she was grateful for it since she could still smell the paint from the living room, even with the safer brand they’d purchased.

“Of course.” Leonard takes her hand, and she opens her eyes. “Are you alright?”

She breathes. “Yeah. I’ve just got this sudden feeling they’re not gonna take everything well.” She’s not so worried about how they’ll accept Leonard as her boyfriend; while he’s not on familiar terms with Leonard like Detective West is, everyone in the police department is at least vaguely aware of Leonard and his division. They’re responsible for some false alarms, but the team goes above and beyond to prevent those, and they cooperate with investigations whenever they’re able.

As for Laurel, well, she and Sara have had a bit of a strained relationship off and on since Sara had started hooking up with Oliver. It wasn’t exactly Sara’s proudest moment, and she regrets it often. Still, they mostly get along well now, and it’s been years at this point.

She’s more worried about how they’ll react to the ultrasound photo that feels like it’s burning a hole through her purse.

But then something shifts, and Sara takes a deep breath, watching Leonard. It doesn’t really matter what their families think. Acceptance would be nice, yes, but it isn’t needed. She needs _him_ , and she’s coming to rely more on their circle of friends, their surrogate family.

“I’m okay,” she says, squeezing his hand, then letting go so they can get out of the car and walk to Laurel’s door. They pause, and Leonard pulls her into a hug like he’s borrowing her strength.

Sara feels completely at ease now, and she isn’t sure, for a minute, how she can be so calm when they’re about to tell their families the news, news they probably won’t take as well as she and Leonard have. Then she focuses on the feel of Leonard’s arms around her, his heart beating steadily under her ear, and she remembers why she’s okay, comes just shy of saying it aloud:

_Oh, we’re in love, aren’t we?_

They’re in love, and they’re having a baby, and they’re excited about it, unexpected as it was at first.

They can handle anything else life throws at them. She pulls away and rings the bell, and there’s a brief delay before Laurel opens the door.

“Hi, Sara,” she says pleasantly enough, looking curiously between her and Leonard. “Come in.”

Once inside, Sara makes introductions. “Laurel, this is my—” She stops, realizing this’ll probably go over better if she doesn’t refer to Leonard as her lover. “This is Leonard Snart. Len, this is my sister, Laurel.”

They shake hands, and Laurel ushers them into the living room, offering up refreshments once they’re seated. Sara accepts a lemonade, glad for once that Laurel doesn't keep alcohol at her place. Her sister sits across from them and eyes them expectantly.

“Well?” Apparently, Laurel’s done with the pleasantries. “You said you had something to tell us. What’s going on?”

“I’d rather wait until everyone’s here,” she says, leaning into Leonard when he puts an arm around her waist.

Laurel purses her lips. “You’re not dying or anything, right?”

“I’m fine, Laurel.”

Sara takes a breath. She shouldn’t be getting defensive already, but she and her sister tend to bring that out in each other just as often as they push each other to do better.

“Dad will be here any second,” Laurel says.

Leonard checks his phone. “Lisa, too.”

Laurel watches them, evaluating, and Sara wonders what she thinks. There probably aren’t too many conclusions she can come to, given the families meeting and an announcement of some sort.

For a second, Sara imagines just telling them that they’re getting married. It’s probably what they’re expecting to hear, right? Warmth rushes through her and tears threaten to make an appearance as she imagines, instead of stumbling over a title for him, introducing Leonard as her fiancé.

It shouldn’t be so appealing. She hasn’t thought seriously about marriage in…

Well, she’s not sure she’s ever actually thought about it seriously. In passing, fleeting moments of speculation, sure. Even in high school, though, she wasn’t exactly the sort to scribble her name with someone else’s last name.

A knock at the door breaks her concentration. Leonard stands and walks to the door with Laurel, probably in case it’s Lisa. With a sigh—Laurel has really good taste in furniture, and the couch is much too comfortable to want to move yet—Sara joins them.

It’s her dad. Until he grins at her, she doesn’t realize how long it’s been since she’s seen him. They live in the same city, but they both have busy lives with very little overlap. He comes inside, wrapping her in an exaggerated hug.

“Hey, baby girl.”

“Hi, Daddy.” She steps back, surprised and grateful she isn’t crying, and takes Leonard’s hand. “Dad, this is Leonard Snart. Len, Quentin Lance.”

“Nice to meet you,” Leonard says, shaking his hand.

“Likewise, I’m sure,” her father responds. “I’ve seen you around the station before. Joe talks highly of you.”

They get settled again, and Sara’s glad there’s another knock at the door before they have to deflect again. Leonard gets up alone this time, letting his sister inside. Sara’s seen pictures, of course, but Lisa looks different in person, her personality practically radiating off of her.

There’s another round of introductions, and Sara shifts under Lisa’s suspicious gaze until Leonard sits back down, taking Sara’s hand. His sister tracks the movement, then searches Leonard’s face. Whatever she sees must be more than she was expecting, because the near-glare is replaced by curiosity.

Sara isn’t sure where to start, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel a stab of annoyance at Laurel’s tone when she speaks.

“We’re all here now, Sara. What’s going on?”

Sara and Leonard briefly discussed what they would say, so Sara takes a deep breath and tries to rip off the bandaid, holding on to Leonard’s hand for all she’s worth.

“Dad, Laurel, I wanted you to meet Leonard, and Lisa, he wanted you to meet me, because we’re dating. We’re gonna be in each other’s lives for a long time, and it’s important to us that you know that.”

When she hesitates, Leonard takes over, his voice certain and even, and she feels a swell of love for him.

“Sara’s carrying my child.”

There’s silence in the room. “I’m due in early November,” she adds. She figures if she gives them the end date, they’ll focus on that rather than the beginning.

“You’re pregnant, Sara?” her father asks, looking stunned. She nods and looks toward the other two in the room.

Lisa’s watching her brother carefully. There’s some sort of silent communication passing between them, and after several seconds, Lisa seems to have accepted it. She looks almost like she might cry.

Laurel doesn’t look nearly so understanding. “You’re together because of the baby, aren’t you?”

So much for avoiding the beginning. “No,” Sara says firmly. “We weren’t planning on getting pregnant, but Leonard and I would be together regardless.”

Laurel’s shaking her head. “No. You’re jumping into things without thinking about it, just like you did with Ollie—”

“ _Laurel._ ” Quentin’s using his sternest voice, and Laurel and Sara whip their heads toward him more out of habit than anything. “Let your sister speak.”

Sara takes a breath. How much more is there to say? “We didn’t jump into things. We thought everything though. I’ve moved in with him sooner than I would have because I needed a lot of help the past couple months and because it makes sense once the baby’s born, but everything else has gone exactly as it would have otherwise. He means a lot to me.”

“Are you getting married?” Quentin asks, and Sara feels Leonard’s hand twitch.

“We haven’t talked about it,” she answers. “Like I said though, except where we have to, we aren’t rushing things between us just for the baby.”

She feels three pairs of eyes on her, and after a minute, her father sighs, the tension leaving him. “You’re happy, baby?”

“I’m so happy, Daddy,” Sara answers honestly.

He stands and holds out his arms with a gruff, “Come here,” and she leaps into them, crying as her father holds onto her.

“I expect you to take good care of her,” he says over her head, clearly addressing Leonard. “She’s my baby girl, you know.”

“I know.” Leonard’s voice is tight, and she pulls back so she can turn and look at him.

She can’t tell exactly what he’s thinking, but he doesn’t seem angry or offended by Quentin’s words. If anything, he looks as emotional as she feels.

She pulls away, digging into her purse as she remembers. She pulls out the ultrasound photo and hands it to her dad, who pulls it from the envelope and falls back into the couch more than he actually sits.

“Ah, sweetie.” His voice is unsteady.

Sara sits back down, curling into Leonard’s side, and he pulls her close.

“That was yesterday,” Sara says, and Quentin stares at the photo for longer than she expects.

“I’m having a grandbaby,” he says with a sniff, finally handing the picture to Laurel. “Donna’s gonna kill me for gettin’ there first.”

The tension drains from the room at that, and Sara stays pressed against Leonard until they have to separate for lunch, the conversation flowing more easily the longer that passes. Quentin gives Leonard an approving nod after her partner braves Laurel’s kitchen for some ginger ale for Sara; the same action earns Leonard a teasing smirk from Lisa. Even Laurel unwinds after a while, and Sara catches her smiling at her and Leonard at some point in the afternoon.

Finally, Quentin announces he has to head home. Sara, Leonard, and Lisa get ready to leave shortly after.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Laurel says as they go to leave, voice pitched for Sara alone. “I just worry about you, Sara. Sometimes it doesn't come out right.”

“It’s okay, Laurel,” Sara says, reaching out and squeezing her sister’s hand. “I get it.”

And she does, really. She’d probably be just as worried about Laurel if her sister announced she was pregnant and living with some guy she’d never even met.

They all say their goodbyes, and Lisa follows Sara and Leonard to their car.

She studies Sara for several intense seconds, her gaze eerily similar to her brother’s, then pulls her into a tight hug. “Welcome to the family,” she whispers.

Sara feels tears pressing at her eyes once more, and when Leonard comes up behind her and wraps her and Lisa both in a hug, the tears spill over.

This is the family she’s bringing a child into.

She couldn’t ask for more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know how long it’s been since I had to look at maternity clothes? About 8 years is how long it’s been. But I did it for Sara :-D [The dress she picks out](http://www.motherhood.com/keyhole-detail-maternity-dress/006-90343-000-001.html?dwvar_006-90343-000-001_color=006-90343-50&cgid=clothing-dresses#start=1).


	13. All the Way Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some drama was required.
> 
> It may ruin some of the drama, but I’m gonna go ahead and clarify that Sara and Len will not break up or even consider it at any time during this story. Not that it really looks like they will in this chapter, but yeah. If you’re looking for a tortured relationship, you’re in the wrong place ;)
> 
> And really I don’t dislike any characters I’m bringing into this story; I just happen to be putting some in situations I don’t think they’d react well to, like Laurel last chapter and Oliver this one. I promise I don’t always think Ollie’s an ass.
> 
> Lastly, NSFW scene when Len gets in the shower.

 

When Sara shows up at Waverider Industries around lunch one day the following week, Felicity pulls her aside to a quiet place before she can enter Leonard’s office.

“Congratulations!” Felicity says, excited.

Sara blinks. “What?” There’s an obvious reason for congratulations, but Sara isn’t sure how she would know. She’s sure Leonard wouldn’t have told her without checking in with Sara.

“You’re pregnant!” Felicity almost squeals, despite keeping her voice relatively low. “I mean, I never pictured Leonard as a father, but it’s not because he’d be a bad one you know? Just because I never thought about it. But now I can’t stop picturing you and him with _babies_ and…” She falls silent and searches Sara’s eyes. “Why are you staring?”

“I… How did you know?”

“My mom told me, obviously. I mean, really, if you weren’t telling people yet, Quentin shouldn’t have told my _mom._ She doesn’t keep a secret well, not when it’s something she’s excited about, but he was just so happy for you and you’re still staring, why are you still staring?”

“Why was my dad talking to your mom about me being pregnant?” Sara thinks she’s probably being rude, but she has no clue what’s going on, feels like she’s missing some vital piece of information.

Felicity narrows her eyes in her own confusion. “You know your dad’s dating my mom, right?”

Bits and pieces click into place. She's never actually met Donna, but Quentin has been trying to get Sara to spend time with the woman’s daughter for ages. Sara thinks she even knew her name was Felicity, but honestly, it's not like there's only one Felicity in Central City.

Plus she was sort of tuning him out every time he started slipping into matchmaker mode. She was happy for him, but that didn't mean she wanted to be besties with his girlfriend's “super smart and kinda quirky” daughter.

“Donna’s your mom,” Sara says aloud, and Felicity relaxes.

“Yeah. If things keep going as well for them as they have been, that means we could end up sisters.” Felicity grins. “That means you might be carrying my future niece or nephew!”

Sara pushes aside the fleeting thought that it would also mean Oliver’s slept with three sisters instead of just two, and she returns Felicity’s smile.

“More family is probably a good thing.”

Felicity lets her go, and Sara joins Leonard in his office. He looks her over in the measuring way that seems to be a new habit, like he’s making sure she’s okay, but a smile plays at his lips as she takes a seat.

“Felicity knows,” Sara says without preamble, “and it turns out, she might end up being my sister since things are pretty serious between my dad and her _mom_.”

“Donna is her mother?” Leonard sounds surprised, but not like he fully comprehends.

“You know what this means, right?” she continues. “Felicity and Ray both know. We can’t put this off another week. We need to tell our friends this weekend.”

“We hadn’t decided how to do that.” Leonard watches her, and she barely resists a huff at how calm he is. “Do you have a preference?”

“Well, everyone knows I’ve moved in with you, so I figure we have a housewarming party and announce it there. We’ll make sure to say no gifts.” She thinks. “We need to invite Ray and Felicity, even though they already know. That means Kendra and Oliver. We should invite Jax, right? Which means Professor Stein. Oh, Mick, obviously. Rory, and Nyssa, though Nyssa probably won’t come, and I’ll need to make sure I tell Rip on Monday before he hears from any of them. Do we invite Barry and the others from S.T.A.R. Labs? And we can’t forget our sisters…”

When she trails off, she realizes Leonard is trying not to laugh. “What?” she demands.

“The housewarming idea is a good one,” he says. “Why don’t we put the invitation online? Anyone who we want to tell would come to a housewarming party if they’re available.”

Sara thinks about it. It makes sense. “Okay… I’ll make a Facebook invite when I get home, then.” Mick enters the office with a perfunctory knock. “You’re coming to a party at our place, Saturday evening, at seven,” she says.

He sits, shrugging. “Sure, why not?”

“Ready to strategize on the Savage case?” Leonard asks, turning the subject back to their job.

“Let’s do it,” Sara answers, and they dive in.

Leonard’s cautious about the case; their client is a woman who suspects her father is stealing from their company and wants help confirming it, without involving the authorities. The Waverider crew is officially only investigating whether it’s possible to commit the types of theft Cassandra suspects, but she’s not bothered to hide the fact that she’s hoping the team’s recording devices will pick up something incriminating.

So they’re treading carefully. The fact that Mick seems to support that they took the case shows how much better he and Leonard are doing lately.

Cassandra Savage herself comes in at the end of the meeting, and Sara finds herself surprised by how attractive she is. It’s not just her physical appearance—Sara’s already seen pictures—but the way she carries herself. She’s confident and contained, and it reminds Sara a lot of Leonard, actually.

With a glance at the clock, Sara stands, holding out a hand and shaking Cassandra’s. “Nice to meet you. I actually have to leave, but Mick and Leonard here will take good care of you.”

Cassandra’s eyes trail over her, then Mick, before landing on Leonard in his place of power behind the desk. She gracefully takes Sara’s vacated seat and immediately gets down to business, pulling the attention of both men in the process.

Sara heads to Timeless Bank after one last look at the beautiful woman who’s already leaning in toward Len.

***

Sara can’t quite relax that night. She gets a text around 5pm saying Leonard will be late because of complications in Cassandra’s case, and she spends way too much time picturing the way the other woman leaned toward him, the way Leonard would listen to her daddy issues, which are so much of what the job boils down to.

She considers offering to help, but despite the fact that she can’t relax, she’s really too tired to contribute safely tonight. Besides, if she’s honest with herself, she knows there’s nothing unprofessional going on, but she still doesn’t really want to see Leonard interacting with Cassandra any more than she has to.

It’s just…

He’s been so good through this whole thing. He’s never made her feel anything less than wanted, even when they were just trying to be friends. Leonard has been her rock through something that could have been a nightmare.

Her hand finds its way to the curve of her stomach, something that seems to be happening more and more frequently already. It’s not enough to show through clothing yet, but it’ll be there soon, and in the meantime, it’s a reminder of what’s happening inside her.

Sara knows Leonard will continue to be there for her, for the baby. There isn’t a piece of her that doubts it anymore, if she ever truly did.

But what has she done to show that she’ll be there for him?

She moved in, sure, but that was as much for her as it was for him. She lets him take care of her, but what if he doesn’t know how big a deal that is for her? She thought he did, but she sees it again, Cassandra leaning in toward him, so clearly needing his help…

She groans, not even sure why these thoughts are so tangled up in each other. They play on endless loop until she’s exhausted, and as she finally drifts into sleep, Sara’s only sure of one thing.

She needs to make sure Leonard knows how much she wants him, too.

***

Leonard can tell Sara’s upset when he wakes the next morning and she rolls away when his alarm goes off. She doesn’t respond to his attempts at questioning, though, so he’s surprised when he hears her come into the bathroom while he’s in the shower.

She joins him without saying a word, staring up at him, eyes intense.

“Is everything—”

Sara interrupts his concern with a passionate kiss. It’s possessive, almost punishing, and he doesn’t even consider not responding. He pulls her body flush with his, pulling her into the shower’s spray, and he tangles his fingers in her hair as the water saturates it.

Her hand is wet as she wraps it around his erection, and he breathes into her mouth when she tightens her grip, skin sliding and catching against skin. She pulls back and watches him, her eyes dark even in the bright light of the bathroom as she pumps him firmly, her mouth open ever so slightly.

Leonard lets a hand trail down, over her shoulder, watching as his fingers smooth away the water droplets for mere seconds, then down her back, careful not to pull too hard and throw her off balance. Sara seems less worried about that, letting go and pulling him close, pressing his erection against her stomach as she yanks him down for another kiss.

“I want you inside of me,” she breathes, only just loudly enough for him to hear her over the water, voice husky as she emphasizes the final word. He recaptures her lips, backing them both toward the far end of the shower, stopping when she’s reached the edge.

He drops his hands to her hips, pressing gently on one side while pulling on the other, and she looks up at him again, gaze somehow even more heated, before complying with his unspoken request that she turn around. He slides his fingers along her arms before guiding her hands to the wall of the shower, then skims his fingertips across her back while he makes sure she’s stable enough on the slippery surface that they’ll be safe.

Sara seems to find this delay unacceptable; she reaches behind her with one hand and guides him inside her, the slick moisture so different from what the water’s supplying that he has to close his eyes for a moment. When he takes too long to start moving, she does it for him, pushing back against him to take him deeper, moaning his name when he fills her.

He has to crouch some to make it work with their height difference, but it’s worth it, with the steam in the air, the white noise of the shower, the easy slide of him inside her. Sara’s more vocal than usual, too, sighs and moans mingling with his name and orders to move deeper, harder.

It’s when she peers over her shoulder, eyes hooded, and puts his hands back on her hips one at a time before uttering a completely filthy, “Fuck me, Len,” that he finally gives in, moving inside her the way she’s searching for. One hand snakes around to her clit, and he manages to push her over into orgasm just seconds before he reaches his own, his thighs burning as he finishes.

When he pulls out, she turns and wraps her arms around his midsection, and after a moment’s hesitation, he does the same, ignoring the water that’s getting cool against his back.

“Is everything okay?” He finishes his question this time, and she’s quiet long enough that he’s not sure she’s going to answer.

“It’s better now,” she says. “I just need to work through something.”

They stand like that until Sara finally seems to realize the water’s turned ice cold, and she doesn’t say any more.

They’re late to work, and Sara still seems a little off, but she kisses him deeply before getting out of the car and tells him the shower was totally worth their tardiness. He watches her go without another word.

He trusts her, and she knows he’s willing to listen. When she’s ready to share whatever’s bothering her, she will.

***

Mick is the first to show at their gathering, which doesn’t surprise Leonard too much. He barely says hello, just shoves his packs of beer into the fridge before taking a bottle with him to the couch.

Next to show, however, are Felicity and Oliver. Sara moves to greet them, and Leonard looks around the apartment one last time, pausing when his gaze lands on the wooden block Raymond got them. They’d put the ultrasound photos away for until after the announcement, and the other baby things were safely out of sight in the guest room—the nursery—but they forgot the little block.

Leonard grabs it, planning to put it in the baby’s room, but he sees Sara talking to Felicity and Oliver. She’s still been a little bit off, but better. Now, though, she looks tense and agitated. He makes his way back into earshot as Felicity looks up at Oliver in disbelief.

“All I meant was,” Oliver is saying, “Felicity told me you managed to get knocked up by the man who makes his living stealing things.”

“Oliver!” Felicity scolds immediately.

Only his grip on the wooden block, the reminder that there’s a child on the way and violence can’t be his first resort, keeps Leonard from hitting the man.

Sara, though, doesn’t seem to have the same worries in the moment; she pulls back a fist and strikes Oliver Queen solidly in the jaw. Leonard reaches Sara’s side as the man brings a hand to his face. Leonard is satisfied to see a hint of blood on Queen’s lip, and he’s aware of Mick coming up behind him and Sara, lending silent support.

Sara crosses her arms. “There is no other man in the world who I’d want to be the father of my child,” she says, her voice ringing with such conviction that he has to force his breathing to remain steady. “I would change nothing about my time with Leonard.” The unspoken, _but I would change things about my time with you,_ is almost audible, and Oliver drops his hand with a glare.

“We are leaving,” Felicity says when Oliver opens his mouth, refusing to let him speak. Behind her glasses, the woman’s eyes shine with angry tears.

“ _You_ don’t have to go,” Sara tells Felicity, who looks between her and Leonard briefly before shaking her head.

“I’m too embarrassed to even… God, I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to you later.” She literally pushes Oliver out of the apartment, and as the door closes behind them, Sara sags against Leonard.

“I hope that’s not how the rest of the night’s gonna go,” she mutters.

Leonard wraps an arm around her, but Mick laughs. “Bet you can take them all if it does. Damn, blondie, you can throw a punch.”

Sara chuckles, relaxing slightly. “I’ve had way too much training to forget how to throw a punch, Mick.” She pulls back, shaking her hand. “Forgot how much it can hurt if you haven’t been hitting things, though.”

Leonard takes her hand in his free one and studies it. It’s a little red, but as she said, she hasn’t forgotten how to hit, and nothing’s broken or bleeding. He looks up at Mick and hands him the wooden block so both hands are free.

“Can you put that in the nursery, Mick?”

“Sure thing, boss,” Mick says with a shrug, and Leonard tugs Sara gently toward the kitchen. She leans against the counter while he pulls out an ice pack, wrapping it in a paper towel before taking her hand again and resting the pack carefully against her irritated skin.

“I could do that myself, you know,” she says softly, making no move to pull away, and he looks up from her hand to see she’s watching him.

“I know,” he answers just as quietly, and they stay like that until Raymond lets himself into the apartment, stopping short at the sight of them, his arms laden with bags.

“Is everything okay?”

Leonard turns to look at him fully. The man’s already wearing his kicked-puppy look. “Everything’s fine, Raymond. Did you bring supplies to someone else’s party?”

Ray looks down at his bags like he forgot he was holding them. “Oh. Well, I just brought some extra snacks and a couple board games, just in case. Sara’s hurt?” He looks back at the two of them, at the ice still on Sara’s hand.

Sara sighs and finally pulls away, keeping the ice pack on with her other hand. “I punched Oliver. He was being an ass.”

“Oh.” Ray blinks. “He does that sometimes.”

She laughs and checks her hand before putting the ice pack back in the freezer and tossing the paper towel. “You could say that, yeah.”

A knock at the door keeps Leonard from adding to the conversation. He answers the door to find Barry, who looks a little uncertain, and Cisco, who pushes into the apartment and makes himself at home, revealing Iris, smiling tolerantly. As soon as they’re inside, Jax and Stein show up. Stein’s brought a gift despite the invitation’s instructions, a wooden cutting board with a matching cheese slicer, and Sara makes all the appropriate noises over the gift, saving Leonard from having to.

Luckily, he’s the only one who brings an actual gift, though a few more—Kendra clearly didn’t consult with Ray first—brought things they might use during the actual party itself.

“Our friends don’t think we can throw a party,” Leonard whispers to Sara during a quiet moment in the growing din.

“They’re trying to help,” she says, serious tone ruined by the smile that takes over her face.

He bends to kiss her, and they break apart a few moments later to good-natured howls and catcalls.

“You can all leave,” he growls, knowing full well not a single person here would listen to him even if they believed he was serious. He can’t even drag his attention from Sara to put a glare behind it, not when she’s looking up at him like that, like everything is okay, whatever’s been bothering her gone, genuine happiness in its place. “We should tell them soon before I actually kick them out,” he adds quietly when conversations resume.

“Let’s wait just a few more minutes,” Sara says. “I want to talk to Iris for a bit before the talk turns to babies.” She smiles again. “Besides, since a lot of people couldn’t make it on such short notice, like half the people here already know.”

Leonard nods, then pours her a lemonade on the rocks before she can leave the kitchen. She rolls her eyes but takes it, and he grabs a beer before joining Mick and Jax in front of the TV.

***

Sara finds herself relaxing, _really_ relaxing, despite the altercation with Oliver and despite the announcement she knows they need to make any minute now.

She might even be looking forward to it, she decides, most of her focus on listening to Iris talk about an article she’s just finished.

“So it exposes where the funds were _actually_ going,” Iris is saying, “and how we can get them to where they should be instead of just dropping that part of the budget altogether.”

“That’s pretty amazing, Iris,” Sara says. She nods as a minor commotion catches her attention: Barry, Cisco, and Ray are having some sort of debate, complete with raised voices and exaggerated hand gestures.

Iris follows Sara’s gaze and chuckles. “Oh, that’s normal. You should see when Caitlin and Harry get involved. They’re normally a lot more reserved, but push the right buttons, and Dr. Wells will get louder than any of those idiots, and Caitlin does this thing where she can freeze out anyone who disagrees with her. It’s awesome. And terrifying, don’t do it.”

“Caitlin Snow?” Sara asks, unable to believe the kind, quiet woman can be intimidating in any way.

It’s not until Iris raises her eyebrows that she realizes she may have made a mistake. The other woman’s, “Yeah. You know her?” is mild, but Iris’s sharp gaze finds Sara’s glass, passes over her stomach, Leonard, the closed guest room door.

At least they aren’t trying to keep it a secret much longer.

“Uh… Yeah,” she answers. “I’ll explain in a bit. I think Leonard’s about to get dragged into whatever this is.” She points to where Ray has crossed over to Leonard, still gesturing wildly, and a smile tugs at her lips.

When she sees the way Leonard’s listening to Ray, clearly catching every word despite how hard he’s trying to act annoyed and disinterested, it’s like what she already knew clicks into place.

Leonard listens to Cassandra not just because the two had shitty childhoods, but because despite his attempts to avoid connections, he cares about people.

It pisses him off that he cares about people, maybe, but it’s true.

Of course that carries over to caring about Sara herself; however, Leonard wouldn’t exactly tenderly hold an ice pack to Ray Palmer’s knuckles. Sara is different, and there’s no way he doesn’t know he’s different for her, too.

Maybe trying to claim him in the shower wasn’t the most efficient way to work through her insecurities, but it was fun, and it didn’t exactly hurt. She shakes her head, the memories of him sliding in and out of her while she’s pressed against the tile much too vivid for her current surroundings.

She looks around the room. There’s Iris next to her, watching her knowingly. Cisco and Barry have dragged Jax, Stein, and Rory into their discussion. Mick’s still on the couch next to Leonard, drinking his beer. Ray’s gestures are starting to slow now that Kendra’s gone to his side, and Leonard turns to look at Sara, raising his eyebrows in clear question.

_Are you ready?_

Sara nods, and Leonard stands and crosses over to her. She’s dimly aware of Ray looking overly excited and Kendra trying to calm him down, more of her attention focused on Len.

“How do we want to do this?” she asks when he reaches her, and Iris politely excuses herself and joins Barry.

“I thought we’d play charades,” he says dryly, startling a laugh out of her.

“Okay, fine. We just tell them?” She’s a little nervous again, picturing so many of their friends gathering around them for their announcement, and why did they think all at once was good, again?

“We just tell them,” he says.

Sara takes a breath. She’s done harder things than this.

“Can we have your attention, please,” Leonard says in a voice that leaves room for nothing but compliance, and the apartment falls quiet.

He looks at her, silently asking whether she wants him to continue, and she shakes her head. She's got this. He stands behind her, hands on her shoulders. Sara sees Cisco and Barry conversing silently, Barry shrugging when Cisco points at his empty ring finger.

Oh boy.

“First,” Sara says, “we wanted to thank you all for coming. You all mean a lot to us, and that’s why we wanted you to hear this from us instead of from somebody else.” Some of their guests look curious, others concerned. Leonard squeezes her shoulders. “Leonard and I are having a baby in about six months. We’re excited and hope you can all be happy for us.”

It’s possible that under other circumstances, there may have been a moment of silence as people processed the news. Instead, as soon as she finishes, Ray opens his mouth—

—only to be interrupted by Mick, who stands and raises a beer. “I’mma be an uncle! Everyone drink to me.”

Miraculously, they do, and Sara leans back against Leonard with a laugh.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he whispers in her ear, sliding his hands down to her abdomen so he can hold her more comfortably, and she shakes her head.

“No, it really wasn’t.”

Their friends start coming up to them, one or two at a time. Ray and Kendra are first, Kendra immediately folding Sara into a hug.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to hide it anymore,” Kendra says. “Have you told Rip?”

“I’m going in early on Monday,” Sara answers. “Luckily, I’m feeling good enough in the mornings that I can drive myself again.”

“Well, he can’t fire you for being pregnant, but if he doesn’t take it well, you know where to find me.”

“Hey, Sara,” Ray interrupts, “did Leonard tell you about my ideas for the nursery?”

They chat for a few minutes before Cisco takes their place.

“I totally knew,” he says nodding. “I mean, I didn’t _know_ know, but I knew, you know?”

Barry and Iris are next.

“Is that what all the, ah,” Barry asks cautiously, “the hugging and crying were about a couple weeks ago?”

Embarrassingly, Sara feels tears prick at her eyes again. “It could’ve been so bad, Barry. Anything happening to him on its own would’ve been bad enough, but then on top of it, knowing our kid would never even meet its dad…”

Len pulls her into a hug, and Sara feels bad for Barry; she hears Iris ushering him away before he can make things worse, a quick, “My dad sends his congrats,” before she’s out of easy earshot.

When she calms down again, Professor Stein and Jax approach, and there are warm handshakes all around, followed by awkward attempts at conversation that quickly devolve into much-less-awkward discussions of technology and science. Sara’s feeling tired but content by the time Rory comes over.

“Congrats,” he says. He’s quiet for a moment, then, “You know, the surveillance in some of the baby monitors nowadays is actually pretty good quality. I don’t think we’d be able to build anything that effective at a better cost. I was thinking, though, if you wanted to upgrade your WiFi for watching when you aren’t at home…”

Ray ends up joining in before the conversation gets far, and it’s not long before their baby’s got plans to be more protected than a visiting prince or princess.

Sara doesn’t exactly object, but she is nearing total exhaustion. When she yawns and leans against Len, she realizes how long she’s been on her feet. Her guests seem to notice, too, at least; they start making their goodbyes, and it seems like mere seconds before their apartment is nearly empty.

Only Mick is left, and he’s standing in front of them, clearly more than a little tipsy.

“Mind if I stay here?” he mumbles, and Sara feels Leonard shaking with barely suppressed laughter. “Still a bed in the kid’s room, right?”

“Yes, Mick,” Sara answers, grinning. “You can stay here.”

“‘preciate it.” Mick starts to turn away, then stops, facing Sara. “I talked to that one plenty,” he says, gesturing at Leonard, “but you’re good with me bein’ the little one’s uncle, too, right?” He looks so genuinely concerned that Sara’s pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to turn him down even if there were a reason for her to. Leonard’s stopped laughing, but she doesn’t turn to see his expression.

“Of course, Mick,” she says firmly. “You’ll probably be the favorite uncle.”

He grunts, and Sara could almost swear he tears up before he reaches out for a hug, which she gladly accepts.

***

The next day, after Mick has gone home, Sara and Leonard are about to start a movie on Netflix when there’s a jaunty knock at the door. Leonard gets up before Sara can—she's comfortable, and honestly, there's still a touch of hesitation unless she's expecting someone, because it was his apartment first—and he comes back a moment later with his sister right behind him.

“Hi, Lisa,” Sara says, watching bemusedly as Lisa somehow plops gracefully down next to her on the sofa.

“Hi,” Lisa says. “Sorry again I couldn't make the party yesterday. When I heard Laurel couldn't get off work, either, and neither of your sisters showed, I figured the least I could do is drop by today.”

“Unannounced and uninvited,” Leonard clarifies, sitting on Lisa's other side. The affection in his tone, though, makes it impossible for the younger woman to take insult. She doesn't even bother rolling her eyes like Sara might've.

“How'd the big announcement go?” Lisa asks.

“It went well, I think,” Sara says, pausing when she realizes Lisa might not know many of the people who were there. “Mick might be more excited than Ray is, and that's saying something.”

“We're not going to have to lift a finger,” Leonard adds. “Not if we don't want to.”

Lisa snorts. “Like you're gonna let anybody else touch your kid for like the first year. How old was I when you let me have my first sleepover?”

Leonard shifts uncomfortably. “That was different.”

Lisa smirks, and the family resemblance is remarkable. “You used our living situations as an excuse, but at fifteen, I knew how to keep my mouth shut when I needed to.”

“You wouldn't let her have sleepovers until fifteen?” Sara asks, unable to stop her own smile at his disgruntled look.

“She went anyway,” he grumbles. It's probably the youngest she's ever seen him act.

“Are you actually pouting?” she asks, delighted. She bites her lip when he shoots her a mock glare; after all, he could make things pretty hard for her with Laurel if he wanted. She doesn't need to make things any more difficult for him. And she probably shouldn't be rooting for the one who broke the rules of her child’s father.

Still…

“We might have to discuss sleepovers a little before fifteen,” she says, managing to keep most of the glee out of her voice, but Lisa looks like she wants to laugh, and Leonard is still glaring.

There is a not insignificant part of her, though, that's warmed by how hard he worked to protect Lisa, how hard she knows he'll work to protect his own son or daughter. It must show in her face when her thoughts shift to this from amusement, because Leonard's expression shifts, too, and Sara finds herself smiling gently at Leonard, who's returning the expression.

Between them, Lisa makes a sound of disgust, abruptly pulling their attention away from each other, but Sara catches a trace of a smile on her lips, as well.

“You two are ridiculous,” Lisa says. She purses her lips, looking at Sara speculatively. “Hey, Lenny?” she asks, much too innocently. Sara’s eyebrows rise.

Suspicion laces Leonard’s voice. “What is it?”

“If I'm gonna talk girl talk with Sara, would you rather cover your ears or go find somewhere else to be for, oh, maybe twenty minutes?”

“Are you kicking me out of my own apartment?” Leonard sounds resigned.

“Would I do that?” Lisa still sounds way too innocent, and Sara’s not sure she's ever had such a hard time keeping a straight face.

With a sigh, Leonard stands. He moves to stand in front of Sara, leaning in, effectively distracting her from much of her mirth. “You still craving that ice cream?” he asks.

Sara's stomach practically growls at the thought. “With the gingersnap cookies in it,” she agrees, licking her lips, and Leonard deliberately does not look at his little sister before leaning in to kiss his lover soundly.

Lisa complains good-naturedly, and Leonard doesn't stretch the kiss out longer than he normally would, a little to Sara's disappointment.

Once Sara's alone with Lisa, the other woman turns that penetrating Snart stare back on her.

“I wasn't sure about you at first,” she says. “Lenny doesn't exactly introduce me to the people he sleeps with. He always kept that part of his life separate. So then you show up, and you're having his kid, so of course he's stuck with you.”

There's no malice in her voice, but Sara can't quite help the quick inhale at the words, and Lisa shakes her head and continues.

“I knew pretty fast that it wasn't really like that. I mean, he's never leaving the kid; I'm sure you know that by now. But I watched him around you at your sister's. I've never seen him like that with anyone. Never thought he _could_ be like that with anyone.

“He's soft around you, Sara. And I don't mean that in a bad way, which is probably how him and Mick would take it. But I mean…” She frowns, like she knew what she was going to say and doesn't anymore, and the rest comes out in a rush. “He loves you, and I didn't think he would ever find that, and I don't think he did either, and even more than the fact that you're carrying my niece or nephew, that sort of makes you like my sister.

“And I've never had a sister, so I'm probably messing it all up by starting it out this way, but I really hope we can be friends, and if you hurt him, I'm gonna have to hurt you, which will probably ruin the whole sister-friend thing.”

Sara doesn't know where to start, and she says the first things that come to mind: “I always wanted a little sister. Damn these pregnancy hormones. Can I have a hug?”

And Leonard, when he returns, seems only mildly surprised to find the women embracing, tears running down Sara's cheeks, smiles on both of their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: Please be careful if you attempt shower sex ;) The trick is finding a place out of the stream of water (because water+sex can equal UTI) and finding somewhere you’re stable enough for it not to be dangerous.


	14. A Window Breaks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey look there's some plot besides pregnancy? Where did that come from? Pssshh
> 
> I tagged canon relationships, and there’s a fair bit of one in this chapter, but it played a big part in the equivalent episode. More details(spoilery) in the end notes in case you need them before diving in.
> 
> NSFW scene near the middle-end, when they go off alone.

 

The pregnancy app Sara checks sporadically tells her that continued changes in hormones and blood flow mean she might see an increase in sex drive around this week.

As she and Leonard collapse to the bed, breathing heavily, and just one look at him has her rocketing immediately back from sated to needy, she decides the app needs some stronger wording.

Sara groans and covers her face. “How can I want to go again already?”

Leonard chuckles, somehow smug despite the situation. “You just can’t get enough of me.”

Any half-hearted attempt at protest is cut off when he uses his mouth and hands to get her off again, and then once more, until she’s finally ready to sleep.

***

It seems to be the pattern over the next few days; _anything_ puts Sara in the mood, most especially Leonard.

“I swear,” she complains to Kara and Iris over a hot chocolate at Jitters on Thursday afternoon, “it's like the man could wear a… I don't know, a trash bag, and he'd still turn me on.”

She pictures it then, because she has to, expecting the image to be absurd, only in addition to the trash bag, he's wearing that _smirk_ and that damned knowing look with that bit of heat in his eyes and…

“Damn it,” she groans, resting her head on her arms and pretending she doesn't hear her new friends laugh.

It's the first time she's spending time with Kara, and it's her first time one-on-one with Iris, but, well, nothing like trial by fire, right? Kendra was busy and Sara desperately needed girl talk.

Besides, they're the ones who asked about sex.

…Weren't they?

“I totally hijacked the conversation, didn't I? I am so, so sorry,” Sara says.

Kara's grinning good naturedly, and Iris scoffs and waves away the apology.

“I asked you what it was like being pregnant. You answered. I don't see the problem.”

“Yeah,” Kara adds. “We're reporters, anyway. TMI is kinda like the jackpot, right?”

Sara snorts despite her mild lingering embarrassment and holds her hands out to illustrate a mock headline. “I can see it now: ‘Local Pregnant Woman Dies from Horniness.’”

She says it just a hair too loudly, and it draws the attention of a few college kids at the neighboring table, and Kara, Sara, and Iris break into laughter. It feels good, relaxing like this. It isn't that she hasn't had fun lately, and she relaxes plenty with Leonard, but it's different with girlfriends sometimes. Especially when she isn't hosting a gathering or keeping any secrets.

“It’s not like it’s only being pregnant that makes people a little desperate,” Iris says, leaning in and moderating her voice much better than Sara had. “Where Barry works, they’ve got all these abandoned offices because they used to be a lot busier, right?” She pauses, clearly for dramatic effect. “No cameras in there, and security never checks.”

“You’re so bad,” Kara says, laughing like it’s the most delightful thing she’s ever heard. “I’m gonna go get another drink.”

“Is she always so happy?” Sara asks, smiling after Kara.

Iris grins. “You have no idea. You should see her with Barry! They’re both so optimistic and happy, and they make each other _worse._ It’s the cutest thing.”

When Kara returns, wearing a huge grin because the barista put extra whipped cream on her drink, Sara and Iris exchange fond smirks.

Kara’s smile, though, suddenly fades. “I’m not being rude, am I? I’m having a coffee, and you’re pregnant, so you can’t… I mean can you…”

Sara chuckles and stops Kara before she can get too worked up, and Kara starts digging into her tower of whipped cream, watching Sara with large eyes.

“Some coffee during pregnancy is perfectly safe,” she explains, “but I was pretty sick in the mornings—well, and the rest of the day—but the point is, I ended up unintentionally breaking my caffeine habit. It didn’t make sense to pick it back up just to limit it anyway.”

Iris is watching her with far too much amusement.

“What?” Sara asks.

“I’ve noticed Leonard’s pretty protective,” she says. “As protective as you’ll let him be, is my guess.”

Sara nods cautiously, not sure where Iris is going with this.

Iris bites back a grin. “Leonard’s the one who told you not to start drinking coffee again, isn’t he?”

Kara’s eyes widen further as she looks back and forth between Iris and Sara, and Sara sits back in her chair and crosses her arms.

“Shut up,” she says, tone intentionally sullen, and the women laugh until she can’t help but smile, too. “He suggested it, yeah,” she clarifies, “but it’s not like he made the decision for me. Besides,” she adds, “you should’ve seen his face when I pretended I’d only do it if he gave up caffeine, too.”

Sara's still chuckling when her phone rings, and she smiles when she sees it's Kendra. “Hey,” she answers, “me and Kara and Iris are over at Jitters, you should—”

“Sara,” Kendra interrupts, and something about her voice makes Sara’s cheer abruptly vanish. “It's Carter.”

“What?” Sara holds up a finger, excusing herself as she finds a relatively quiet corner in order to finish her conversation. She returns to the table a few minutes later, staring at her phone.

“Is everything okay?” Kara asks. Both women are looking at her, concerned.

“Yeah,” she answers, “maybe? But complicated.” Sara shakes her head. “Barry works at S.T.A.R Labs, right, Iris? Can you get me in without having to get through all the security hurdles? Kendra could use me there pretty quick, but she doesn't see anyone she can ask.”

“Of course,” Iris says, standing and grabbing her purse. She looks toward Kara.

“I'll cover for you at work,” Kara says easily. “I hope everything’s alright.”

“Thanks, both of you,” Sara says. “I'll explain on the way there, Iris.”

Once they're in Sara’s car, she starts talking.

“I know you’ve met Kendra at least a couple times now, but I doubt she’s mentioned her husband. He’s not exactly a light party topic.”

“She has a husband?”

“Had,” Sara corrects before wincing. “Well… Okay, she and Carter got married pretty young. This was before I even met Kendra. And then a few years back, Carter went by himself on this training mission, and there was… He was using explosives, though they never found out why, and it went bad. The whole building came down, parts of it like completely vaporized, and they never found his body, but obviously it’s not like anyone could survive that, so they declared him dead without that much delay because…”

Sara shakes her head, remembering Kendra’s grief, her pain, the way it rocked the whole team and irrevocably changed her friend.

“We didn’t have any reason to argue. We all knew he was dead. We lost the footage inside the building.” She swallows. “We saw video of the outside. We saw what it did to the people who made it out, alive and otherwise. Carter was _dead._ ”

“‘Was’?” Iris prompts when Sara falls quiet.

“Kendra said he just showed up at their old apartment. She wasn’t there, of course, and he was claiming to be a dead guy, so the cops took him in. She got called in, not knowing what to expect, which is why she didn’t have anyone with her at first. I guess the whole proving-you’re-a-dead-guy thing gets complicated pretty quickly, and they ended up at S.T.A.R. Labs for DNA testing.”

“Wow.”

“That about sums it up, yeah.”

“Pull in over there,” Iris instructs, indicating a smaller parking lot rather than the main one. When they come to a stop, she looks at Sara. “It’s a good thing, though, right? Carter not being dead?”

Sara shrugs a shoulder. “I mean, yeah, of course. It’s just complicated. I mean, Kendra’s finally moved on. She’s probably a mess.”

She’s right, but not quite in the way she expects; when Iris gets her to where they need to go, she can hear Kendra before she can even see her, but the woman isn’t crying.

She’s yelling.

“You’re not serious. You cannot be serious!”

Iris taps Sara’s shoulder to get her attention. “I’m gonna go find Barry,” she says quietly. “Just follow this hallway to the biggest room when you’re ready to join us. Can’t miss it.”

Sara nods, then moves into the little lab to join her friend and their one-time teammate.

“You would’ve done the same thing,” Carter tells Kendra, sparing just a glance for Sara. His voice is raised, too, and if Sara had entertained any doubts that he was an imposter, they would’ve been erased at the familiar, angry chemistry between the two of them.

“You think I would’ve avoided calling you for three months, after finally remembering who I was after _three years_?” Kendra’s practically spitting fire.

“I had to make sure you were safe! I still don’t know how I got from that building to the city I spent the last three years in, and I didn’t know if it was all a setup. I’m the one who’s got holes in his memory, here; why are you playing the victim?”

“Don’t turn this back around—”

“Why don’t we all breathe for a minute,” Sara interrupts, drawing two pairs of angry eyes in her direction. “So I think I just got some of the basics from the yelling. What’s going on right this second? There was a DNA test, right?”

Carter nods. “Yeah. We’re just waiting on the results that say I’m really me and not some copy or reincarnation or whatever the hell I’d have to be to have all the same memories.”

Kendra looks around. “I think we scared off the woman who was doing the testing.”

Carter narrows his eyes at Kendra, who narrows hers right back at him, and Sara looks toward the door, wishing she felt like she could leave them to do this in private.

“She said she wanted to consult with one of her colleagues,” Carter says. “I guess you were listening to her as well as you’re listening to me.”

“What is your problem?” Kendra snaps.

“What’s my problem? I try to go home and I get dragged off to jail, and then to some lab to get tested like I’m a mutant, and my _wife_ is treating me like a stranger and isn’t even glad I’m back.”

“Of _course_ I’m glad you’re back,” Kendra protests, “but it’s not like I just sat here waiting for you. I thought you were _dead,_ Carter. I’ve moved on. I’ve _lived._ Don’t try to make me into the bad guy just because it’s taking me a minute to wrap my head around all this.”

There’s silence for several seconds, and Sara eyes the door again, but then Carter speaks, his voice low and quiet this time.

“Did you miss me at all?” He watches Kendra carefully for her answer.

Kendra sighs and smiles sadly. “Every day.”

The tension drains from the room just in time for a familiar woman to walk through the doors, tablet in hand.

“Dr. Snow?” Sara blinks as her doctor smiles at her.

“Hello, Sara. Iris told me you were here. And please, again, it’s Caitlin. Especially when we’re not in my office.” She turns her attention to Carter and Kendra. “Mr. Hall, you’ll be happy to know the testing confirmed your identity—”

“No shit.”

“Carter!”

“—so everything looks good there. However, there are some complications. You’ll need to wait here a little longer.”

“You mean I can’t go home yet?” Carter looks at Kendra. “Where’d you move to, anyway? You never said.”

Sara tenses, ready for the explosion, as Kendra watches him for several seconds before answering.

“I moved into Sara’s old place,” she says, taking a breath, “with my boyfriend.”

“You have a—” Carter stops his blowup, looking at Caitlin. “Apparently, I can’t go home anyway, because my wife has a _boyfriend_.”

Any potential response is interrupted by the boyfriend himself; Ray, Leonard, and Rip appear around a curve in the hallways as if summoned.

Sara feels pity for Ray, because there’s no way he and Kendra are coming out from this unscathed, and she knows how much he loves her. He’ll probably even be happy for Kendra, though there might be some pouting mixed in there. Judging by the near-anguish on his face, he’s not quite to either the pouting or happy-for-her stage.

She’s confused by her boss’s presence until she remembers he was Carter’s boss, too, when the man “died.”

At the sight of Leonard, though, whose eyes find hers immediately, she can practically feel the barriers she’s constructed over the past hour or so start to crumble, and as she tears up, he closes the distance between them and wraps his arms around her.

***

Leonard tries not to scowl at Ray when the man looks at him like touching Sara at a time like this is a personal slight. Raymond is a wreck right now, but there was no way Leonard wasn't going to hug Sara when she looked at him like that.

She holds him tight for only a few long seconds, then lets go, keeping a loose arm around his waist, so he keeps one on her shoulders as they face the rest of the room.

“I'll let them explain,” Snow says before leaving, and Kendra, Sara, and Carter—who he's never met, but he's seen photos of—all turn to look at Leonard.

“Why do you assume _I_ have the answers?” he protests idly, nodding toward Rip.

Rip looks guilty, and from the little Leonard has heard, he probably should.

Rip shoves his hands deep into the pockets of his jacket. “Right. All of you know, or can at least deduce, that I’m the one who sent Carter on his last training mission.” He takes his hands out of his pockets and rubs at an eyebrow like it’s offended him. “I am in charge of operations at Timeless Bank, which puts me above security, yes, but I am not at the top. I report to a council of sorts, a board whose composition is not open to the public.”

Neither is its existence, Leonard notes, mentally sifting back through the data he collected on Timeless Bank when he did the job for Sara.

“When they asked me to send Carter on the training mission,” Rip says, looking toward Leonard but not quite meeting his eyes, “I thought they wanted to start a company to rival Waverider Industries. Our security team was already more than adequate for a bank of our size, and that was even before Miss Lance took over as head of security.”

Under his arm, Leonard can feel that Sara’s tense as she listens.

“There was simply no other reason I could see for sending him.” Rip finally meets Carter’s eyes for the first time since he’s been talking. “How much do you remember about the training mission?”

Carter shakes his head. “Nothing relevant, if that’s what you’re asking. Had to break into some vault using explosives they prepared for me. Thought they were supposed to be fake. I remember heat, and I remember waking up in an apartment three states away not knowing who I was.”

“I don’t have answers for you there yet.” Rip sounds apologetic. “But it’s bothered me for years. They didn’t ask for another training mission like it, didn’t make any moves to set up a secondary company, at least not that I was made aware of.” He sighs. “And then recently, I… I’ve come to believe they’re taking turns posing as clients and using Timeless Bank to store stolen goods. My best guess is that they were hoping Carter might be able to help them acquire some of these artifacts, but when that backfired, they went another route.”

“So our bosses are actual thieves who almost got Carter killed for their own gain,” Sara says, steel in her voice. “That's what you're telling us?”

“That's how it appears, but I have no proof we can use to take them down.” Rip’s eyes move back to Leonard's. “That’s where I hope you’ll come in, why I called you.”

“You want help finding proof.” Leonard sounds calmer than he feels, thinking about how bad things could’ve gotten for the others under Rip’s employ, how bad they might still get. Leonard takes a moment to look at the others. Kendra looks guarded, and she keeps sneaking looks at Ray, who still looks like he’s just gotten kicked. Carter looks pissed. Sara’s face is much too neutral in conjunction with the tension still in her body.

“I don’t know who else to ask.” Rip starts pacing. “I don’t have enough to go to the police, but I know they’ll listen to you if you find anything, and I know you’re good. S.T.A.R. Labs has tech that could assist us, as well, if they’re willing.” He stops, looking at Leonard again. “What do you think?”

Five pairs of eyes watch Leonard as he considers his options and all the potential complications even based on the few details he has. “Keep in mind that I will be running this by my partner before I commit,” he says, waiting for Rip to nod before he looks to Carter. “For this to work, you’ll need to stay dead. Let the cops who saw you today assume you were an imposter, and stay hidden. They’ll probably put you up here at the labs if you don’t have anywhere else.” Carter nods, his jaw still tight, and Leonard turns to Raymond.

“I’ll need your help.” It’s not entirely true; he could use it, yes, but he could find ways to do it without the man if he had to. But he remembers how Raymond’s face fell when he got the call from Kendra, how he’s struggled to keep it together, and he knows this will help. “Can you do it?” As Leonard hoped, Raymond’s expression clears, and he nods decisively.

“I can do it. Whatever you need.”

Kendra starts to reach for Ray, then stops herself, crossing her arms, raising her eyebrows when Leonard shifts his attention to her.

“Kendra and Sara, as part of the Timeless security team, your involvement makes a big difference. Are you in?” Kendra nods, her gaze hard, and when Leonard looks down at Sara, she simply raises her eyebrows in a way that says, _Of course. Did you have to ask?_

“Then pending more details from you,” Leonard says, turning back to Rip Hunter, “and a consult with Mick, I accept.”

Rip exhales and nods gratefully. “I’ll send you what I have as soon as I’m able.”

“We’ll need a meeting in person,” Sara says, “next week at the latest, to talk about all of this. Leonard and Mick since they’ll be running things from the Waverider side, me and Kendra since we’ll be in charge of any Timeless involvement, and you and Carter.”

“Quite right,” Rip agrees easily, turning to look at Carter. “I was hoping I could have a few minutes alone with Carter now to discuss immediate future and compensation…”

The group breaks apart quickly after that. Carter and Rip start talking quietly, if heatedly. Ray’s and Kendra’s eyes meet, and Kendra seems to soften before dragging him away to somewhere private. Leonard looks down at Sara, and he’s startled by the heat in her eyes.

“This way,” she says quietly, and she slips out from under his arm, taking his hand and leading him down the hallway to an unused office, shutting the door behind them. She walks almost angrily over to the empty desk, then leans back against it, facing him and crossing her arms. “This whole thing sucks,” she says, “and best case, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna end up out of a job.”

Leonard frowns sympathetically. She’s right; even if the bank transfers to other hands, it’s unlikely to survive the associated scandal. Nobody wants their money in a bank they can’t trust. “The full-time job at Waverider’s still on the table.”

Sara smiles wryly. “I know. And that helps, really, but I’m still losing something I helped build to where it is, you know?” He nods and moves toward her, and the way her eyes drop to move over his body _really_ doesn’t fit the tone of the conversation, but when they lock back onto his, they’re dark, and they hold intent.

“And then,” she says, her voice a touch lower than it was before, “it didn’t help that I couldn’t stop thinking about how good you smelled, how good you felt against me, how sexy it was when you took control of the situation.”

Leonard quirks an eyebrow and moves even closer, stopping right in front of her, just inches between their bodies. “You liked that?”

“Mmm.” She reaches out and runs a hand down his chest. “To be fair, I’ve liked basically everything lately.”

Leonard presses into her touch as he leans closer, resting his hands on the desk on either side of her. “Unless they’ve upgraded security here again,” he says, “there aren’t any cameras in here.”

“There aren’t,” she confirms, almost a whisper, and he refrains from asking how she knows, for now.

“I can try to help you focus back on the situation at hand,” he suggests, “or we can see if we can work out your distraction by bending you over this desk and making you come before we’re missed.”

“Definitely the second,” she breathes, curling her fingers into his shirt and pulling until his lips are on hers.

***

She needs this, Sara decides, needs him desperately, needs him _now._

It’s not just the distraction, though that’s part of it. It’s him, and she doesn’t know how much is emotional and how much is some weird biological redundancy that makes her want endless amounts of sex with the man who’s already knocked her up, but whatever the reasons behind it, she doesn’t really care.

She can feel his erection against her through their clothes, and as his hands start caressing in that way that usually means he’s trying to slow things down so she’s ready and enjoys herself, she pushes him back just far enough to meet his eyes. She shakes her head.

“Like you said, people are gonna miss us if we take long.” She shifts slightly, letting her thighs provide her with the tiniest bit of friction. “Plus, I’m already ready for you.”

His eyes darken before he dips to kiss her, and then he turns her around so she’s facing the desk. She leans forward, glad her stomach isn’t yet in the way at this height and angle, and she hums encouragingly when Leonard slides her pants and underwear down just far enough to be out of the way. He runs a hand over her ass before trailing a finger through her moisture, and she hears his intake of breath as he finds her exactly as ready as she claimed.

“What are you waiting for?” she asks.

She would’ve bet money she couldn’t get any wetter, but she’d have been wrong; there’s another rush of heat as she hears the rough slide of his zipper, and she looks over her shoulder to watch him free himself. She means to maintain eye contact as he enters her, but the sweet relief is too much, and she closes her eyes and drops her forehead to the desk.

Leonard grips her hips, just shy of too hard. “You feel amazing, Sara.”

She pushes back against him, groaning at the familiar stretch, and he takes the hint, starting up a regular rhythm. It feels amazing, but it’s not quite enough, not until he lifts her slightly so she’s on her toes, and then he’s hitting her at just the right angle, and she has to press her mouth against her arm to muffle her sounds.

He speeds up, and she’s still riding that sweet spot right at the edge when she feels his tension shift in the way she knows means he’s close, and when he speaks, his voice is rough and strained, but there’s still a solid core of command present.

“I want you to come for me, Sara.”

With a muffled curse, she does, hard, hard enough that afterward, she can’t say whether it lasted seconds or hours, only that her legs seem unable to hold her up and her fingers are numb.

When she can finally bring herself to turn around and stand mostly straight, still leaning against the desk, Leonard’s pulling himself together with a smirk.

“What?” she asks.

“Are you actually sated from one go?” he asks, mock serious. “Maybe we should have public sex more often.”

“Shut up,” she says with a laugh, trying to fix her own clothes. “A deserted office is hardly public.”

“I’m not hearing a ‘no.’”

She tilts her head at him. “Is that something you’d like?” They haven’t really talked kinks and fantasies, but being watched is not something she’s gotten the impression he wants. It’s sort of neutral for her, not something she objects to or craves.

He frowns, seeming to consider it. “Not particularly. Call me old fashioned, but I don’t really care for the idea of sharing you, not even with accidental voyeurs.”

“That’s fair,” she says after a second, remembering how much she’d hated even sharing professional aspects of him with Cassandra. “We should probably go find everyone before they wonder where we went,” she adds, telling herself firmly that this is not the time to ask what things he might _like_ to explore.

She takes his hand as they walk through the hall. The room they were in before is empty, so they continue down the corridor until they find the large room Iris had told her about earlier. Kendra, Carter, and Ray are there, but Rip seems to be gone. Iris is there next to Barry, and Cisco stands behind what looks like a computer with far too many monitors. Caitlin hasn’t left, and she’s deep in discussion with the only person Sara doesn’t recognize, a man with dark hair and glasses.

Iris notices their arrival first and smiles, raising her eyebrows knowingly. Sara’s pretty sure her new friend would tell her if there were anything actually out of place or obvious and is only making an educated guess as to what they were up to, and Sara rolls her eyes and smirks. Barry catches the end of the exchange, but it seems to be enough; he flushes, and he’s still red when he calls attention to their entrance.

“Hey Sara, Snart,” Barry says.

Caitlin touches the arm of the man she’s standing with, getting his attention, and the two of them join Sara and Leonard.

“Sara, Leonard,” Caitlin says, “I don’t think you’ve met Harrison Wells yet. He works alongside Barry and Cisco.” She smiles. “Or he’s their boss, depending who you ask. Harry, this is Sara Lance and Leonard Snart.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m sure,” Harrison says dryly, and Sara can practically feel Leonard’s instant appreciation for the other man’s humor. “So you’re the one who’s spearheading this covert operation?” He directs this to Leonard, who nods.

“Rip mentioned asking for your help with the tech.” Leonard pauses. “You weren’t here when I stole weaponry from the lab.”

“No,” Harrison answers, crossing his arms, “I wasn’t. You’d never have made it in otherwise.”

The men perform some sort of silent exchange, and then both of them relax, Leonard pulling Sara in front of him so he can wrap his arms around her. As has become almost habit, it seems, he rests his hands on her stomach, pulling her shirt tight against her. She leans back against his chest and looks toward Kendra to make sure her friend is doing okay.

Kendra is standing next to Carter, looking like she’s made a choice, and judging by Ray’s hunched shoulders, she’s chosen her husband.

It’s all so much to take in, even for Sara, that she’s not sure how Kendra is coping. Sara can’t quite even wrap her head around it yet, and she’s sure it’ll sink in at some inconvenient time, like right before she falls asleep. That’s when it’ll really hit her that they basically abandoned Carter to his fate. Right now, it still feels like a story someone else is telling.

Leonard and Harry are talking about potential tech they can use, in vague detail given they don’t have nearly enough facts from Rip yet, and Sara watches Kendra relax back into her old mannerisms with Carter. After a few minutes, the strained trio comes and joins them.

Carter looks at her and Leonard, and his eyes drift down to her stomach.

“You pregnant, Sara?” he asks, his tone suggesting he’s already sure of the answer. Sara looks down and see that with the way her shirt is being pulled against her, the curve of her stomach is clearly defined, rounding down to where Leonard’s hands rest.

Given the circumstances, she shouldn’t feel the swell of happiness that her pregnancy is finally visible through her clothes, to people who don’t already know, even if it is slight enough that Carter probably shouldn’t have said anything. She does, though; she feels both happiness and satisfaction, which take her a little off guard with their intensity, and it’s not until Leonard dips his head down beside hers that she can focus enough to answer.

“Yeah,” she says, smiling and covering Leonard’s hands with hers.

“Congrats,” Carter says, and it’s as simple as that; he’s been gone long enough that he doesn’t know the baby wasn’t planned, doesn’t know she and Leonard have only actually been together for a handful of weeks.

“Did we figure out where you’re staying?” Sara asks, feeling a surge of gratitude and maybe a trace of guilt.

Carter nods. “They’ve got some spare bunks here. It’s easier than trying to sneak around your— Kendra’s apartment.”

Kendra looks like she’s about to say something, but then she stops, and Ray speaks.

“And Kendra and I are broken up.” He runs a hand through his hair and looks at the ground. “I mean, we are, but that’s the official line for why Kendra will be avoiding the apartment while I move out.”

The room falls quiet, and Carter huffs.

“Look, I’m not trying to be the bad guy here. I know you all like Ray, and I’m sure he’s a good guy. But this situation is awkward as hell and we can’t all get all uncomfortable any time any of this comes up.”

Ray nods. “He’s right. We’ll figure this out. You don’t need to involve yourselves in the relationship parts of this.”

“Thank God,” Harry breathes, and Caitlin elbows him, turning away so he won’t see her smile.

It breaks the tension, and the group goes back to making tentative plans until it’s time to call it a day.

***

_I’m about to put on one of those martial arts movies you like to tease me about. might fall asleep on the couch. just wake me up and I’ll move to bed_

_and hey, len?_

_I’m a pretty big fan of you. Just so you know._

Leonard smiles at the series of texts from just a few minutes earlier.

_The feeling’s mutual. I’ll be headed home soon._

He finishes organizing the papers he needs on his desk for Monday, when they’ll all meet to discuss the official plan for Timeless Bank. There’s a knock at his door, and he looks up, expecting Mick.

Quentin Lance is at his door. “Can I come in?”

Leonard stands. “Of course.” He gestures at the seats across from his desk and hesitates before sitting back down. “What can I do for you?”

Quentin sits in one of the chairs. “It’s about Sara.” He holds up a hand to stall Leonard’s immediate and involuntary panic. “She’s fine! She doesn’t even know I’m here. Now, I’m not asking you to hide it from her, just sayin’ I didn’t tell her, either.”

Cautiously, Leonard nods. He’s used to leading discussions here in his office, or at least having some idea of where they’re headed, but apparently the Lances are good at throwing a wrench in that for him.

“Sara’s always been independent,” Quentin says. “I mean, sometimes ridiculously so. She started making her own sandwiches when she was three, and she’d threaten people with the butter knife if they tried to help. So watchin’ the two of you at Laurel’s, seeing how she let you get her food and drinks, and even the way she just let herself relax around you? I don’t even have to talk to Sara about it. I know my baby girl’s all in when it comes to you and her.”

Quentin sits back in the chair, folding his hands together in a way that abruptly reminds Leonard that the man is a detective. “This is the part where I ask you what your intentions are with my daughter. I know it’s outdated, but she’s my little girl, and I need to know you’re not gonna hurt her.”

Leonard breathes. He really needs to talk to Sara about their future, he knows, outside of having the baby, but he’s been putting it off in favor of just enjoying their time.

“We haven’t talked about it,” he says, much as he told Raymond, but this is Sara’s father, who he knows won’t be so easily put off. “But I’m hers in whatever way she’ll have me.”

Quentin watches him for a solid minute before nodding at whatever he sees. “You love her?”

“I’d like to tell Sara that before I tell anyone else.”

“You telling her soon?” Quentin’s softened from interrogation to gentle curiosity, so Leonard doesn’t let himself bristle at the continued questions.

“I don’t think I can wait much longer.”

The conversation shifts briefly to pleasantries before Quentin leaves, and Leonard sends Sara a text to let her know he’s headed home. As he stares at the message, he comes to a decision.

He’s telling her this weekend.

Not tonight, probably, because he’ll be shocked if she’s actually awake when he gets home, despite the fact that she’s had more energy lately. But he’s telling her before they get back to work Monday, before they proceed with their plans to take down her employers.

He won’t wait any longer before telling Sara he loves her and wants nothing more than a future with her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kendra and Carter play a big role in this chapter. There are additional mentions/brief scenes with Westallen and Kendra/Ray. Tiny nods toward the possibility of Snowells, but only if you’re looking.
> 
> Next week’s chapter is Destiny! Accordingly, there are some good highs and some high tension. AND NOBODY DIES. I kinda love the chapter because I got to play with my favorite Captain Canary exchange, and I got to pull out the Captain Cold persona. What I’m saying here is, I’m excited to post next week’s chapter even though I’m only just posting this one, and I hope you all are, too.
> 
> Also, as I move into writing the second half of this fic, if there are any pregnancy scenes or first-year-of-life things you’d like to see eventually, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do ;)


	15. How Much this Moment Means to Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amazingly, this first scene isn’t Tavyn’s fault; it’s Claudiarain’s.
> 
> This is the Destiny chapter, so I feel the need to remind you: NOBODY DIES.
> 
> Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s have some fluff, action, and kinda bittersweet fluff, shall we? And then we might just be done with actual non-pregnancy/romance plot for most of the story.
> 
> Oh, and just, like… There are heavy/angsty bits interspersed during the action-y parts. They hurt and made this hard to write. Focus on the fluff before and sweet after.

 

Leonard finds himself unable to keep his eyes off Sara the next morning. They’re grocery shopping, of all things, and Sara’s not wearing anything special, just leggings and a long shirt that hides her growing belly from anyone who doesn’t already know she’s pregnant.

He’s pushing the cart while she grabs things off their list. She reaches for a box of cereal, her eyes finding his as she turns to put it in the cart, and she smiles in him in that way she has, like nothing else matters.

It’s all he can do not to tell her he loves her right then and there, but even though he doesn’t need it to be some grand gesture, he’d like the first time he says it out loud to her—while she’s awake—to be somewhere a little more private than the local grocery store.

“You’re staring,” she says, still grinning at him, and he lets himself smirk.

“I was just questioning your choice of cereals,” he says, despite the fact that he couldn’t actually say what she’s grabbed.

“Hey,” she protests, dropping the cereal deliberately into the cart, “I can eat it, and you don’t eat cereal, anyway, so it’s my choice.” She puts her hands on her hips and attempts to school her expression into a glare, but she fails so miserably that he tightens his grip on the cart to keep from pulling her close and kissing her thoroughly right there in the store.

“Fine,” he agrees. “What’s next?”

They haven’t shopped together, really, since she started feeling well enough to keep down foods normally, so Leonard makes a note of each of her choices for the next time he makes the trip alone.

Or maybe he’s still just looking for excuses to watch her.

She’s radiant, smiling to herself, at him, at the damned grocery list, and she has more energy than he’s seen in weeks, nearly skipping from one item to the next. The way she navigates the store is nothing like he would alone; she ends up going down the aisles out of order, some of them multiple times.

They pass the bread three times before she stops to pick up a loaf for sandwiches.

“Not that kind,” he says when she selects one. Sara looks at him, surprised, and he realizes he sounded serious this time, unlike the other times he’s objected today. “I have a brand I prefer,” he says, pointing it out. She picks it up and puts it in the cart, watching him.

“Why this one?” she asks.

His lips pull downward as he tries to decide how to respond. “It was the healthiest bread I could afford for me, Lisa, and Mick, when we were young. I suppose I got used to it.”

Sara nods, then comes to stand next to him, placing a hand on his arm and leaning up to kiss his cheek.

“Ice cream’s next on the list,” she says.

“You mean vegetables.” He tries his best to look serious. “We need vegetables more than we need ice cream.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “Fine. Vegetables and _then_ ice cream.”

Sara makes a show of making faces at every single green thing they put in the cart. When it comes to ice cream, they end up going with two pints after they fail to agree on a half-gallon. They get to the checkout line, and Sara grabs a few chocolate bars. When Leonard tries to make a disapproving face—they already have ice cream and a handful of other desserts—Sara pouts, a twinkle in her eyes.

“But the baby wants them,” she says, putting the items on the conveyor belt.

Leonard knows her well enough by now that he has no doubt she’s joking rather than serious, but he’s pretty sure that would’ve actually worked, if he really had ever intended to keep her from getting the candy. When she turns back to him, she’s grinning, and Leonard tugs her close with his hands at her waist, his thumbs grazing her stomach.

Sara’s expression softens as she looks up at him, then she adopts a scandalized look. “What if she doesn’t like chocolate? Leonard, we could have a baby with _no_ taste.”

“He’ll be perfectly fine if he doesn’t like chocolate,” Leonard says, tone serious, but he can’t quite keep the smirk from his face.

It’s their turn to check out, then, and Sara turns her attention to the cashier, and Leonard’s mind is again stuck on one thing:

He loves her, and he can’t wait to tell her.

***

She’s relaxing in their bed after the groceries are put away, trying to decide whether she wants to nap or find something to do, when Leonard appears at the doorway. He’s watching her with the same serious expression he’s been turning her way all morning, but now, there’s intent there, too.

“What’s up?” she asks, sitting so her legs hang over the side of the bed.

He comes in the room, stopping farther from her than he normally does, and he takes a deep breath. It puts her on edge, a little, that he seems suddenly nervous.

“This isn’t a proposal,” he says finally. “Not yet. Not today.”

When she tilts her head at him, not sure where he’s going—what would he have to say that she might take as a proposal?—he continues.

“I’ve always prided myself on being the guy who doesn’t play by the rules. You’ve helped me break a lot of them,” he adds, looking pointedly at her stomach, and she smiles, but she still feels hesitant. He sounds so serious, and Sara stands.

“It’s probably not a surprise, but I’ve started to think a lot lately about what the future might hold for me, and you”—he lifts his eyes to hers—“and me and you.”

Oh. This would be why he clarified it wasn’t a proposal. She swallows, not sure what to make of it, combined with that low tone, if it’s not.

“You want to steal a kiss from me, Leonard?” she quips, trying to lighten the mood, taking a step closer so he can do just that. “You better be one hell of a thief.”

He puts a hand around her waist, pulling the gentle curve of her stomach flush against him, and she tilts her face up toward his automatically.

“I love you, Sara Lance,” he says in that same serious tone, without so much as blinking. “I expect I always will.”

It takes Sara several seconds to get her breathing under control. It’s not that she didn’t know, but hearing it, hearing him say it intentionally, seeing how intensely he’s watching her as he says it, how important it is that she hears it…

“I love you, too,” she breathes finally, pulling herself up to crash her lips against his.

For long minutes, nothing exists but the kiss, and then he pulls back, looking at her like he can’t quite believe his luck, and Sara has to blink back tears. Leonard kisses her tenderly on the forehead, then gestures to the bed.

“Let’s sit,” he says. “There’s more I wanted to say.”

Sara feels like maybe she should be nervous again, but Leonard isn’t giving her a chance to be, not breaking physical contact as they get more comfortable.

“I wanted to be sure we’re on the same page,” he says, watching her, “with regard to our future.”

She feels her lips twitch; the relationship conversation is such a stereotypically female thing to initiate, but Leonard is such a planner that this just makes sense.

“Well, we love each other,” she says. “So we got that much right, at least.”

He nods, and she can’t quite stop the quick kiss she presses to his lips. A smile plays at his when she pulls back.

“Are you finished?” he asks.

Sara shrugs. “For now. At least until I get distracted again.”

He’s quiet for a minute, not breaking eye contact until he speaks. “We went into this rather out of order,” he says. “And I don’t want either of us to ever think we’re in this relationship solely for the baby.” He looks back at her. “Making us wait after we found out was a good thing.” He frowns. “Moving in together so early was a practicality. I’m glad you moved in, but it further convinces me that we should talk about what we want out of our future, when it comes to you and me,” he says, pausing to move his hand from her lower back so he can lace their fingers together, “and not just as parents.”

Sara nods slowly, looking at their joined hands. Since they’ve known about the baby, their future child has played a part in any of their plans. It’s not a bad thing, she doesn’t think—it’s a necessity, really, since it’s not like they can ignore that the baby will be joining them—but he’s right that it’s good to at least think about what they want for each other, too. Their lives will revolve around the kid often enough; what does Sara want for herself and Leonard, specifically?

Leonard’s waiting for her to say something, she knows, but her mind keeps coming back to how he started this whole conversation, his clarification that it wasn’t a proposal _yet._

“You said it wasn’t a proposal yet, ‘Not today.’” Sara pauses, trying to find the words she’s looking for. She remembers, weeks ago, realizing she actively liked the idea of marrying him, and right now, she’s fairly certain that it’s exactly what she wants for their future. He slides his thumb across her hand soothingly, and she continues. “Does that mean you plan to propose eventually?”

She looks up at him, and while his expression is mostly neutral, there’s so much in his eyes— _I love you, Sara Lance_ —that her breath catches.

“I’ve considered it,” he says quietly, simply, as if the fact that his tone is as good as a “yes” doesn’t send her emotions spiraling.

Her hand tightens on his as she makes a decision about how to word her response. “I’ve considered accepting,” she says, matching his tone.

His lips are on hers before she can take a breath, and as they fall to the mattress, Sara decides the rest of their conversation can wait for later.

They want to spend forever together, for themselves and not just for the baby.

Everything else can wait.

***

When Leonard realizes just how many people are going to be involved in planning to take down the Timeless puppet masters, he decides to move the meeting to S.T.A.R. Labs; Carter’s mostly confined to the building, anyway, so it makes a logical plan B.

Of course, moving it to S.T.A.R. Labs means even more people end up involved when Barry and Cisco insist they can help. Leonard considers asking them to leave anyway, but he still feels a little like he owes Barry. Besides, there are so many people involved that two more doesn’t really make a difference.

Leonard and Mick are there as the main coordinators from Waverider Industries. Raymond is assisting, though with Kendra and Carter there, the man may have insisted on coming, anyway. Sara and Kendra are handling what needs to happen at Timeless Bank. Carter and Rip are there more for information than for actual contribution during the mission. Wells is the only S.T.A.R. Labs employee who was officially invited, there to offer what he can in the way of technology. Handling the tech and mechanics on mission itself are Felicity and Jax, though Leonard suspects Cisco will pitch in now that he’s involved. Joe West is there as a witness in law enforcement; there’s always a chance they’ll get caught, and this mission runs more of a risk than usual of seeming to be on the wrong side.

The only appearance that actually surprises Leonard is Kara Danvers, who walks in as the meeting is about to start, sharing a grin with Barry before turning a professional gaze in Len’s direction.

“Barry didn’t give me any details, but he said something was going down,” Kara says, adjusting her glasses and looking determined. “There’s always a chance that police and tech will fail, and then if discrediting is your only option, I’m your gal.” When she isn’t immediately asked to leave, she blinks and stands straighter, pulling out a notepad. “Besides, even if it goes perfectly, I suspect it’ll make an awesome story.”

Barry hasn’t stopped smiling since Kara started talking, and Leonard sees the way Sara’s smiling at the woman with fond amusement. A curt nod in the reporter’s direction earns him his own beaming smile from all three of them, and he sighs, refusing to smile back, despite the fact he can tell Sara sees right through him. He’s amused and maybe a little happier than he should be to be surrounded by these people—who smiles so easily, anyway?—but this meeting will be a serious one, and he’s in charge.

He can’t let his guard down just yet.

“Cisco,” Leonard says, “can you project the information I sent you so everyone can see? I didn’t expect quite so many people.”

“Yes,” Harrison replies as Cisco works his magic, “whereas I was clearly expecting this many people to invade my laboratory today.”

“It’s not like I’ve seen anyone actually _work_ here yet,” Carter murmurs.

“Dude.” Cisco sounds indignant. “You were here over the _weekend._ Of course you didn’t see a lot of work.”

The bickering is mostly set aside as Leonard outlines his plan, Cisco notating adjustments as they’re supplied by the team. They can’t just open the personal deposit boxes they suspect hold stolen goods, not without a warrant, and Leonard doesn’t need Joe to tell him that they don’t have enough to go on for that.

All they have, really, are Rip’s suspicions, Carter’s suspect disappearance, and some security footage that does nothing to prove the items aren’t imitations or prints. They don’t even have enough of _those_ to try to prove coincidence with timing of stolen items; some were deposited weeks after the fact, and most of the time that the board members deposited something, it never showed up on camera, the person having kept it carefully out of view.

The plan is relatively simple; they’ll contact the person Rip suspects does the recruiting, and they’ll ask to meet. They’ll catch them in the act of explaining the illegal operation, then turn the evidence into the police.

Simple.

Still, when Sara volunteers to be their contact as head of Timeless security, Leonard can’t help the immediate wave of denial that washes through him.

Kendra speaks for him in a room that’s actually fallen quiet. “You can’t, Sara.”

Sara frowns. “I’m perfect for it. We already know they’re involved with Timeless and use my security systems for their own benefit. I’m probably the person they’d most want on their side.”

He’s not standing as close to her as he usually is; Sara’s eternally a temptation, and while her presence can actually help him concentrate, her being within easy reach is a distraction. One he can resist, yes—he’s a grown man and isn’t one to use “but I wanted to” as an excuse—but it’s still a distraction.

He’s able to watch, then, see her whole body unobstructed as she remembers. She shifts from defensive to surprised, then drops her shoulders and curls an arm around her stomach.

“I can’t in case it goes wrong, can I?” Sara isn’t looking at him, but it feels like it’s directed at him, regardless, whether because he’s leading the operation or because he’s her partner, he isn’t sure.

“Sara…” He trails off, not sure what to say, and she meets his eyes.

Sara shakes her head. “It’s fine, I get it. I just need a minute.” Her eyes drop back to the floor, and she leaves the room.

The mood is subdued as the group continues their discussion, selecting Ray as their mole instead; it’s well-known that Ray works with Leonard, so he’d be a good source of information or potential link to the head of Waverider’s Acquisitions department. As far as the board is concerned, he’ll be following an enticing bit of information he overheard from Rip while visiting Kendra.

When several minutes have passed and all the major details have been hashed out, Sara’s still not back, so Leonard excuses himself and goes in search of her. He finds her in the abandoned office they’d used on their last visit.

***

Sara doesn’t cry after going off on her own, which amazes her, really. She thinks maybe she’s just got too much going on in her mind for her emotions to take over like they have so often lately. She needed some time to think, but she’s glad when Leonard comes in after her thoughts are in a little better order.

Gripping the edge of the desk she’s leaning against, Sara watches Leonard close the door behind him before he speaks.

“Are you alright?”

“I don’t know,” she says, as honest as she can be. She sighs and loosens her grip, and Leonard comes and stands next to her, hip against the desk so he can face her. He’s not touching her, which she’s glad for; she wants to talk, and his touch will either undo her entirely or make her feel like none of this is worth getting upset about in the first place.

“I get it,” she says. “I get why it’s not smart right now, risking myself even a little when there’s no way to do that without also risking the baby.” Without letting go of the desk, she turns her head toward Leonard. “But when does it end? I’m pregnant now, but soon I’ll be a _mom._ Is it okay to risk our baby never knowing its mother? When is it okay? When the kid’s in kindergarten? High school? An adult? I don’t know anymore at what point it’s okay for me to risk myself in situations like this.”

Leonard’s quiet, watching her, and Sara can tell he’s turning her words over in his mind, looking for an appropriate response.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” he says, “but you’re not alone. It shouldn’t be okay for me to risk my life when I’m a parent, too.”

Sara breathes through the pain of thinking about losing him. “But then what does that mean? We can’t sit by and watch our friends risk their lives instead just because they’re not parents. It doesn’t make their lives worth any less.”

“Our jobs aren’t risky as often as it’s felt like over the past few months,” Leonard says carefully.

“Yeah, but now we’ve got this whole mess, and there was the time you got _shot,_ and there was the time I almost—” She feels the blood drain from her face. “I was pregnant when I took on the armed robber. I could’ve gotten our baby killed.”

Leonard pulls her into his arms, and Sara lets him, needing the comfort he provides to take her mind off exactly how badly that could have gone.

“We already don’t take more risks than we need to,” he says after a few minutes have passed and some of the tension has drained from her body, leaving her exhausted and vaguely nauseated. “We don’t let our teams take risks they don’t need to, either. We can make sure we stay in supervisory roles. That way, we do everything we can to ensure our people are safe, and we’ll only step in when it’s needed, when we’re the only ones for the job.”

Sara takes a deep breath, soaking in his scent. “That’s the best we can do without giving up on who we are, isn’t it?”

***

The following days pass much too quickly. Raymond is, perhaps, too good a piece of bait; the head honcho himself replies almost immediately with a time and place for the man to show.

They’re ready, though, and before long, Leonard’s watching carefully as Cisco outfits Ray with a camera and headset.

“They’re both functionally invisible,” Cisco says. “Not just clear, because that could end up reflecting light or causing noticeable distortion. So, how these work is they have little cameras, and they reflect that to the outside of each device, so it looks like it’s not even there, ‘cause all people see is what they expect to.”

He steps back, and Leonard searches for any trace of either device, but even knowing exactly where Cisco put them, he can’t see anything.

“What about if they have a device to sweep for bugs?” Leonard asks, stilling as Cisco starts giving him the same treatment, hooking him up with the same type of monitoring devices.

“Undetectable,” Harrison answers, “even with our technology, which I highly doubt they can compete with.”

Sara’s talking quietly with Felicity as the two of them familiarize themselves with Cisco’s setup, which they’ll be using to monitor everything from afar. Sara decided if she couldn’t be physically involved, this was the next best thing, and she and Leonard both have gotten a little more comfortable with how much more weight their risks carry now that they aren’t alone. Leonard himself will be closer to the rendezvous point, on hand in case things go south, hence the backup camera.

“I call it the Oculus,” Cisco says, tapping the device in question on Leonard’s shirt. “Because it’s like an all-seeing eye, you know? Plus the curvature…”

Leonard tunes out the other man’s rambling, getting his mind in the right place. If everything goes according to plan, all Ray has to do is talk and listen. The S.T.A.R. Labs tech will take it from there.

The large room is crowded with the number of people involved; everyone who was at the planning meeting is here, as are Dr. Snow and Iris. Everyone’s projecting a tense anticipation; even Barry and Kara’s smiles keep slipping.

When it’s almost time to go, Leonard makes sure his microphone isn’t on yet, and he gestures for Sara to join him just outside the room. She kisses him as soon as they have any privacy, and he takes what strength he can from it, feeling flutters of something that is a little more than nerves. He hasn’t felt this bad about a job in a long time, but he’s checked the plans over and over and knows there’s nothing more they can do to prepare, nothing else to increase their shot.

So he needs this, needs her, needs this brief goodbye so he can do what he has to do.

And by the intensity in her eyes when she pulls away, she needs it, too.

“I love you,” she says, quiet but firm. “Be safe.”

He dips his head for another quick kiss. “Same to you,” he says, and his hand drops, almost of its own volition, to her stomach, another reminder of what he could lose if things go wrong.

She covers his hand briefly with her own, then forces a smile. “Let’s do this.”

Again, time seems to move too quickly; it seems like moments later, he and Raymond are approaching the meeting point, stopping the minimum safe distance from the small conference building that the board’s contact rented out for them.

“There shouldn’t be anyone else here,” Cisco mumbles, voice coming through Leonard’s and Ray’s headsets. “But look at the cameras from across the street.”

“They’re all there,” Rip says, clearly watching the cameras. “Every one of the council. It’s riskier than just one, but perhaps we can take them down even more thoroughly than I expected.”

Ray, already a little on edge, looks completely thrown by the knowledge that he’ll be pretending for so many people, and Leonard feels his gut clench, the fluttering from earlier solidifying into something like dread. This is wrong; it isn’t going to work. He’s sure of it. Raymond is terrified, and despite the fact that Leonard knows the man would go in anyway, he can’t—won’t—let him risk both the mission and his life when Leonard can go in instead with a higher chance of success.

“New plan, Raymond,” he says in a tone that brooks no argument. “You stay here. I go in, tell them I caught wind of it and want to be the one who teams up with them.”

“But the plan was... I’m supposed to—”

“Like I said. New plan.” He closes his eyes and turns his attention to the mic. “Felicity, could I have a minute with Sara?”

“Uh… Sure,” the woman replies, and the headset falls silent for a moment.

“Len?” Sara’s voice is so clear and sounds so close, and he has to swallow before he can speak.

“Sara—” This is harder than he thought it would be, but a look at Ray, who’s watching him with something like guilty relief, reminds him why he’s doing this. “I promised I’d tell you if I was going into a risky situation again. Raymond isn’t experienced enough to handle eight people on his own, and they’ll be even more on guard if the two of us go in together.”

“So you’re going,” Sara says, tone much too controlled. “It’s the right call.” Leonard closes his eyes again. “Leonard.” Her voice breaks, emotions finally showing through. “Come back to us in one piece, okay?”

“That’s the plan.” He opens his eyes and takes a breath. “Tell Felicity she can open up the comms again. And can you get Mick on?”

“Sara and the baby,” Ray says quietly, looking like he’s trying to psych himself up. “I can’t let you do this for me, Leonard. I’m the one who’s supposed to go in, and it’s not like I’ve got anything to lose.”

Mick’s stern voice through their headsets makes Ray jump. “Don’t even think about it, haircut. The boss knows what he’s doing. You’re not gonna get yourself killed just to prove you can stick to a plan.”

Leonard watches Ray until the man nods. “Mick, I need you to keep an eye on my camera while I’m in there. You know my tells and code words. If I give the signal, get Joe to send in backup, and make sure the video ends up in the right place, no matter what.”

“Will do, boss. I’ve got your back this time.”

“We all do,” Barry chimes in, and Leonard realizes he must be on the equivalent of speakerphone. Leonard looks where he knows Raymond’s camera is pointed at him, and he nods. The support helps just a fraction in combating the feeling that things haven’t finished going wrong.

With one more deep breath, Leonard strides away from Ray and toward the building. He enters confidently, pulling on the persona he wore as a teen: a cold, snarky bastard. It’ll be what they suspect out of him if he’s willing to go against everything he seems to stand for.

Plus, in a bad situation, the armor is as familiar and comforting as the jacket he’s wearing.

“Hello, boys,” he says cockily, walking boldly into the center of the loose circle of men. He needs to control the situation, and he’s not exactly going to blend in, so instead, he needs to command their attention. “I’m afraid Raymond couldn’t make it, but you didn’t _really_ want to deal with my subordinate, now did you?”

There’s a gun on him almost immediately, and Leonard forces himself to stay calm, merely raising an eyebrow in response.

“Now, now, that’s no way to approach a business deal.”

“Put the gun down, Declan.” It’s Druce, the man who seems to run the council, who speaks. “What do you want, Mr. Snart?”

Leonard watches Declan lower the gun before he responds. “Let’s not play coy, here. I know you have a system in place to acquire items you can profit from.” He needs to get to the point quickly, but without scaring them off. “If you want to expand, who better than the man who single-handedly formed an organization of thieves so good that we can work with the police and not even get caught?”

Druce’s eyes aren’t the only ones gleaming with greed. “Are you saying your operation isn’t entirely legal?”

“Oh, it is,” Leonard responds flippantly, carelessly turning so he can evaluate the men in the room, as well as catch them all on camera, “but let’s just say I’ve gotten a bit… bored.” He shrugs. “If I can shake things up _and_ turn a profit, why wouldn’t I?”

“This is a setup,” Declan says. “We thought Palmer might be working with S.T.A.R. Labs, and now his boss is the one here and trying to get us to fess up. He’s bugged.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” a third man, one Leonard doesn’t have a name for, hisses. “You know we have detectors for that sort of thing at every entrance. It’s why we meet here. He’s clean.”

“Or not so clean,” Druce says thoughtfully, and Leonard tenses, ready to signal for backup. “He’s not above getting dirty with us, and like he says, what more could we ask for?” Leonard exhales. The man is going to take the bait, after all.

“Tell me about your operation so I know whether it’s _worth_ getting my hands dirty,” Leonard prompts.

“You don’t get to know everything from the start,” Druce replies. “But we can give you the highlights.”

“That’s it,” Felicity says softly in Leonard’s ear. “Keep him talking. Police are on their way but will wait until you’re out.”

“I’m listening,” Leonard drawls, responding to both of them at once.

“Most of us are well-to-do, which you know if you’ve done half the research your reputation suggests,” Druce says, “but we aren’t content with that. Why should people who are lesser control more than we do? Why should priceless items be kept on display, where they can only be looked at and not touched, not of benefit to anybody?”

Leonard screws his face into something approximating grudging admiration. “You use your connections to gain access to items you want to acquire for yourselves.”

“Precisely.” Druce sounds satisfied, and that might be enough, but Leonard has to make sure. It has to be completely unambiguous.

“And all of you participate in these creative acquisitions?” He turns, letting the camera catch the nods all around, and comes to a stop facing Druce once more. “Fascinating.” He pauses, thinking through his next words. They’re far enough into the conversation that he can probably safely drop the euphemisms. “And where do you store the stolen items?”

“We control a bank that has an excellent balance of security and customer privacy.”

“And when people get in the way?” Leonard asks, pushing away his satisfaction, knowing they need to cover what happened to Carter, too.

“We take care of them, in whatever way is convenient. When murder’s too messy, we have amnesia pills.” Druce smirks. “Yes, they’re a thing.”

“But you kill if you have to,” Leonard confirms, “to keep your genius illegal operation a secret.”

Druce shrugs. “Yes. It’s the best way to stay on top.”

“That’s all we need, Leonard,” Felicity says, her voice anxious but triumphant. “We can get more details later, but that’s enough to get them. Get out of there. Police are on their way.”

“Well, gentlemen,” Leonard says, “you’ve given me a lot to think about. Why don’t we take a day to consider how we can help each other. I’ll need to get a handsome percentage of the profit, but I see this being a beautiful partnership.”

The man narrows his eyes, and Leonard feels his pulse speed up.

“Not so fast. What assurances do we have that you won’t go to the police?”

“With what proof?” Leonard answers easily, forcing himself to wait before moving toward the door. “Your connections mean my word wouldn’t do a thing.” He pauses. “I’ll need some protections for myself, if I get involved. I can’t have you pinning it on me if everything goes wrong.”

The returned accusation seems to settle Druce, who nods. “Not unreasonable. Then we’ll be in touch, Mr. Snart.”

Leonard smirks and nods back. “Later, boys.” He turns, neck prickling at the attention on his back, and he exhales as he pushes out the door of the building and into the sunlight.

He freezes and holds up his hands as he sees the police have already converged around the building, sirens silent, guns trained on him. Detective West waves them down, and Leonard quickly gets behind the police line to watch the rest of the operation.

He doesn’t truly relax until Sara shows up, and she wraps her arms around him tightly enough to ground him, his arms going around her in some combination of instinct and self-preservation.

He needs this, he thinks as he lets his chin rest atop her head, her face pressed against his chest. Even—or especially—after a day like this, everything is better when he and Sara Lance are tangled up in each other.

***

Sara can't seem to make herself stop touching Leonard, but he doesn't seem to mind, and they stay in some form of contact through the raid, through the debriefing at the police station, through the ride back to their apartment.

Through dinner and until they get in bed, they keep the topics intentionally light, avoiding any serious discussion of the day. Sara tells Leonard she thinks Dr. Snow and Dr. Wells might have a thing going on, and Leonard tells Sara that Mick seems to be taking Ray under his wing.

Finally, though, she lets herself address what happened that day, the reason they've still only barely let go of each other. Even now, they're practically on top of one another, his arm under her head and across her chest, one of her arms under him and her head on his shoulder.

“I thought I was gonna lose you today,” she says into a lull in the conversation. “I was watching the camera, and then there was a gun pointed straight at it. At _you,_ Len.” His arms tighten around her, and she breathes. “I can't lose you.” She knows she's echoing her own words from weeks ago, but they're still true. Maybe even moreso now than they were then.

“I’m still here,” Leonard says after a minute. “I’m not leaving you. We’ll both take fewer risks, wherever possible.”

She nods against him and turns so she can tuck her face into the crook of his neck.

“I love you,” she breathes.

“I love you,” he echoes, turning to press a kiss to her forehead.

The words aren’t automatic, but they’re easy, honest, true.

They’re everything.

And she knows, as she fights a losing battle against sleep, clinging to Leonard instead, that one day they might become automatic, that she might not have to stop and consider her words before saying she loves him, that her breath might not catch in her chest every time he says it in return, but even then?

She doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to take the words for granted.


	16. Never Thought I'd Love Anyone So Much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so Sara’s pregnancy is all planned out with dates and everything, so any holidays mentioned are ones that really do fall at the given point in her pregnancy. It won’t always sync up with real-world time since 1) I posted a couple chapters a week for a couple/few weeks and 2) starting next chapter, time will move a little faster, but it’s all mapped out.
> 
> In this chapter, I sort of mirror Mick’s scene with Len as well as Sara’s with Quentin, but the latter scene’s similarities are basically just that they exist. Quentin won’t be telling Sara that her sister’s dead, because Laurel is alive and well.
> 
> This chapter (or life with lack of time to write, whatever) fought me, and it’s shorter than I’ve gotten used to, though not as short as the first chapters!

 

Sometimes, slipping on his old persona is without consequence; when he’s done, he lets it go, reverting back to the man he’s become since then. Other times, though, it’s harder to shake.

He’s not sure what it was about the recent mission that is making it hard for him to forget who he used to be. When he’s around Sara, he’s himself, the man he wants to be. When he’s away from her, he feels unbalanced.

Mick notices. Of course he does. Leonard can tell by the way his partner’s watching him.

“Let’s get a drink, boss,” Mick says when they’re finishing up at work one night.

Leonard opens his mouth to decline—he's been looking forward to getting home to Sara—but after a moment’s consideration, he decides a drink or two with Mick might be good for the both of them.

“Why not?” he agrees, picking up his phone to text Sara.

_Grabbing drinks with Mick. Might be late._

He considers Mick for a moment before sending another text.

_We’ll probably hit the bar by the apartment. If we have more than a couple drinks, Mick will need a place to crash._

They’ve been living together for over a month now, but with Sara feeling under the weather for so much of the first month, they haven’t really navigated how to let the other know there’s going to be company. He’s not entirely sure how to give her the option to say no without feeling like he’s asking for permission.

Not that he objects to asking, but Leonard figures if he asks her permission before inviting a friend over, she’ll feel like she needs to do the same, and they should both be able to feel at home in their apartment.

He really needs to get out of his own head tonight.

His phone buzzes with a response from Sara.

_Mick’s always welcome to crash with us. thanks for the heads up so I don’t come out of the room naked ;)_

Leonard’s smiling when he sets aside a stack of papers and joins Mick, but he sobers as they drive to the bar in their own vehicles. As soon as they’re inside, he orders something a bit stronger than a beer, and Mick follows suit.

“What’s been up with you?” Mick asks once they’re seated.

Leonard’s quiet for a couple minutes as he gathers his thoughts, and Mick just nurses his drink, waiting.

“I’ve been trying to figure out who I am,” he says finally, “as ridiculous as that sounds. Between the changes at Waverider, and everything with Sara, becoming a father…” He takes a drink, then forces himself to continue. “I was holding it together until I realized how easy it still is for me to slip into that old me, cold and controlled and willing to do whatever I have to in order to achieve my goals.” It’s helping, even saying this aloud, even though it’s not something he’d normally share. “With so many different roles, how do I even know who I really am?”

“I know who you are,” Mick answers. “You’re the best guy I’ve ever known.”

Leonard can’t quite help his disbelieving huff.

“I’m serious,” Mick says. “You protected Lisa, kept me fed and outta jail, got me a good job where I could use my skills. You built Acquisitions from nothing. You save people, like when you helped with those hostages, and even the shit with Hunter and Hall last week. Plus there’s how you are with Sara and the kid, even if the kid’s not here yet.” Mick shrugs, taking a swing of his drink, not meeting Leonard’s eyes. “You may not think you’re a hero, but you’re a hero to me. Hero to a lot of people.”

Leonard’s jaw clenches as he tries to process, and Mick continues.

“Doesn’t mean you gotta be perfect. Not like you’re alone, either. You’ve got me at Waverider, and Sara with the other shit. And if you gotta be someone you used to be in a pinch, who the hell’s gonna blame you for it? Better’n getting yourself killed. You got that?”

He knew all this already, he really did. Hearing it from his partner, though, from his best friend…

He takes a deep breath, then another drink. “Yeah, I got it. Thanks, Mick.”

Mick grunts and finally looks at him properly. “Don’t thank me yet. Ray’s gonna join us in a while.”

Leonard dons a put-upon expression that he knows Mick will see right though. “And why, pray tell, is Raymond joining us?”

“Kid’s been having a rough time,” Mick answers. “Plus, he’s movin’ into my spare room, and I haven’t gotten around to givin’ him a key.” When Leonard raises an eyebrow, Mick continues. “Seemed pretty broken up about moving out of Kendra’s place, and I was thinking about getting a roommate anyway. Just made sense.”

“Mick,” Leonard says, fighting to maintain a neutral expression, “you’re as much of a secret sap as I am.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Mick responds.

“‘Don’t tell anyone’ what?” Raymond asks, coming up behind Leonard.

“That he snores. Loudly.” Leonard smirks, and Ray just blinks.

“Oh. I hadn’t noticed.” He’s already got a beer in his hands, and he looks between the two sides of the booth before taking a seat next to Mick. The three of them start talking about work, and then Mick and Ray break off into a conversation about some show Leonard’s never even heard of.

It feels good. _He_ feels good, more centered than he has been since their last mission. He’s decided this outing was a good call.

Then Raymond addresses him directly again. “So what are you doing for Sara for Mother’s Day?”

“Kid’s not even born yet,” Mick says before Leonard can respond.

“But she’s pregnant,” Ray counters, indignant. “She’s already taking care of the baby 24/7. Doesn’t that count?”

“That make Leonard a dad already?” Mick sounds more curious than argumentative now.

Ray shrugs and looks at Leonard. “How much have you done for Sara that was really for the baby? A lot, right? You’re already parents, so why not recognize that?”

Shit. Raymond has some points. Leonard’s not so sure he’s earned anything for Father’s Day—he’s only done what any decent human being would, he thinks—but Sara’s growing his child inside her.

Ray’s right. It deserves at least some recognition.

“When is it?” Leonard asks.

“Sunday,” Ray answers, grinning. “I can help you plan something, if—”

“No, thank you,” Leonard says quickly, imagining how grand a gesture the other man might suggest, and Mick chuckles. “I’ll think of something just fine on my own.”

“Well, let me know if you want any help,” Ray says. “I’ll just be moving things out of my apartment, again.” He sighs. “I know it’s strange to be moving out when I just moved my stuff back. I didn’t even live with Kendra all that long, only moved in like a week after my party. And it’s not like I’m selling the place. It’s just so big and empty.” He looks at Mick, puppy-dog eyes out in full force. “Thank you, Mick, for taking me in.”

“Don’t mention it,” Mick grunts, emptying his drink. “Really. Don’t mention it.”

Leonard smirks into his own drink, and Ray gets up to get them all refills. They talk and drink for long enough that, even though none of them are severely impaired, Leonard drags the two men—alright, his two _friends,_ he’s relaxed enough to admit—home with him, a short walk from the bar. Mick takes the spare bed, and Ray passes out almost the second he hits the couch. Leonard chuckles and heads into bed, wrapping Sara into his arms.

“Have fun?” she murmurs, not sounding entirely awake.

“I did.” He kisses the top of her head, and she tucks in closer against his chest. “Raymond and Mick are both sleeping here.”

Sara hums her acknowledgement. Leonard has work again tomorrow, as do Ray and Mick, and it’s possible they’ll all regret the late hour come morning. For now, though, he’s just grateful, for his renewed sense of balance, for connections he couldn’t always admit he needed, and for the woman in his arms who’s already drifted back off to sleep.

***

Sara’s fifteen weeks pregnant. Her app says the baby is the size of an apple or cinnamon roll.

She’s small enough everywhere except her stomach, though, that she’s getting looks more and more frequently when she goes out. She’s gotten a few more maternity tops and a pair of dark jeans with a forgiving waistband, and she can feel the appraising eyes on her as she waits for her father’s lunch break mid-week. There’s a particular lingering hesitation she’s already come to recognize, when people are fairly certain she’s pregnant but not sure enough to say anything.

Luckily, the people who matter already know. Detective West approaches her before she’s been there for more than a few minutes.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” he says, wearing an almost paternal smile.

Sara smiles back. “Yeah, thanks.” Her hand settles over her stomach, the curve increasingly reassuring the further along she gets. She’s not entirely sure why. Maybe because it’s the closest she can come to checking on the baby for now.

Her dad comes out of his office then, interrupting her musing.

“Ready to go, baby?”

“Ready,” she says, waving goodbye to Joe before they leave.

“I’m taking the week off,” she tells her dad a few minutes later as they sit down with their food. “Timeless is closed right now, and it doesn’t sound like it’s ever gonna reopen, other than to let people get their money and things, and that’s going to be supervised by a team the authorities trust.” She sips her juice before picking up her burger. “I’ll start full time at Waverider next week.”

“What about the rest of your team?” Quentin starts in on his own food while he listens.

“Nyssa found a job as a personal bodyguard already,” Sara says between bites. “It’ll suit her, I think. Len checked the budget and is taking any of my team who are interested, but so far just Rory Regan is coming to join us on the Waverider crew.” She frowns. “Kendra isn’t really giving us a straight answer, but we’re supposed to meet up on Friday, so I’ll figure out what’s going on then. I know she’s got a lot to deal with still, with everything with Carter.”

“That’s gotta be rough.” There are a few minutes of silence as they both eat. “What about that boss of yours?” her father asks.

Sara shakes her head. “Rip’s gonna be busy with legal crap for a while, and he’s never working in a bank again or getting hired by a security company. I’m not sure what he’s planning after that.” She toys with her fries for a moment. “I’ll forgive him eventually, but I’m still upset right now. I know he was in a shitty situation, and I think if anyone else had been at risk, he’d have said something sooner. It’s hard, though. Maybe we didn’t actively work together that often, but we worked together well when we did.”

“People make mistakes, baby.” Quentin’s watching her, serious. “God knows you’ve forgiven me for plenty of my own. You’ll get there.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

He smiles at her, that particular, almost sad smile he’s always worn when his daughters have to deal with something challenging, then changes the subject. “So how are you feeling? How’s my little grandbaby doing?”

They talk until he has to go back to work, and Sara stops by Waverider to set up her new desk, despite the fact that she could do that next week.

It’s possible she’s not great at taking time off work.

***

When Sara finally gets to talk to Kendra, it doesn’t go anything like she expects.

“We’re leaving,” Kendra says after avoiding the topic for several minutes.

“Leaving?” Sara blinks, then stares, taking in the almost regretful but determined expression on her friend’s face. “You mean like…”

Kendra looks at Carter, who’s on the computer on the other side of the room. “We’re moving away. There’s so much we need to figure out, and being here in Central City makes it harder. We need to figure out who we are again, without all the expectations from ourselves and people who knew us.”

“So that’s a no on coming to work at Waverider, then,” Sara says, knowing that’s not what her friend needs to hear. At the flash of hurt in Kendra’s eyes, she takes a breath. “I’m sorry. You need to do whatever’s right for you.” She smiles wryly. “It’s just that I’m gonna miss you. We’ve worked together for so long, and we’ve been friends for most of that time. We even lived together.”

Kendra’s smiling a little sadly, but the hurt is gone, replaced by understanding. “I’ll miss you, too.”

Sara swallows. “We at least get to throw a goodbye party or something, right?”

Kendra hesitates before shaking her head. “We were sort of hoping to leave this weekend. Besides, parties were always more Ray’s thing, and, well…”

It would probably be uncomfortable for Ray and Kendra both, not to mention Carter, as well as any guests who are even halfway observant.

“So this lunch today is probably the last time we’ll see each other for a while.” Sara waits for Kendra’s nod before she continues. “Okay, then. We’re gonna enjoy it. Grab your purse; we’re going to that place you like down on 5th.”

They have a good lunch, laughing and talking, and when it’s time for Kendra to head back home, they both make excuses to delay the inevitable.

“Should I tell the landlord we’re both leaving?” Kendra asks, finally turning back to the topic they’ve been avoiding. “I mean, your name’s still on the lease just because we never bothered to take it off, but if I’m leaving, too…”

“Yeah,” Sara says after a moment. “I don’t see ever needing it again, if you’re sure you’re staying gone.”

“I’m sure,” Kendra says, giving her that sad smile again. “I mean, I’ll come back for visits. You’re not getting rid of me entirely.”

“You better come back for visits,” Sara says sternly. “I’m having a kid soon, you know.”

“I know. I’m sorry I won’t be here.”

“You need to do what you need to do,” Sara says firmly, really meaning it this time, and she pulls her friend into a hug before they finally part ways.

***

Sara wakes Sunday morning to Leonard bringing her breakfast in bed, her favorite pastries and a glass of juice on a tray.

“Good morning,” he says, in that damned tempting voice he uses when he’s pleased with himself.

“Morning,” she says, blinking and shifting into a sitting position, watching as he sets the tray over her lap. “What’s all this for?”

His lips twitch, and he sits next to her. “Apparently, sixty percent of women pregnant with their first child expect some sort of recognition on Mother’s Day. Raymond might have taken the time to point out to me that you’re already caring for our child every minute of the day. I figure that merited breakfast in bed, and if it happens to be on Mother’s Day, so be it.”

“I’m not sure I’m awake enough to follow that,” Sara says, taking a bite of pastry and washing it down with orange juice. “Is this for Mother’s Day or just because?”

“A little of both,” he says, grabbing one of the pastries and taking a bite before putting it back on her plate, smirking when she shoots him a mock glare. “There are more in the kitchen if you eat these.” Leonard’s smirk softens into a smile.

“You’re in a good mood today,” Sara says, not quite a question.

He shrugs dismissively. “We took care of the assholes who could’ve made things pretty bad for us, you’re starting full-time at Acquisitions tomorrow, and I couldn’t ask for better company in bed this morning.” When Sara chuckles, he leans over and kisses her cheek, just grazing the corner of her mouth. “Happy Mother’s Day.”

They eat in comfortable silence, Leonard continuing to steal bites of her food, acting injured when she elbows him playfully after a particularly big bite.

“If you’re up for it,” he says when she’s finished, “this isn’t quite everything I had planned for today.” At her raised eyebrow, he continues. “Don’t worry, I’m not going overboard. Can’t set the bar too high the first year, after all.” Another smirk. “But I made sure Lisa and Laurel were available. I figure it’s a day for family, and you don’t get a lot of time with your sister.” He hesitates, losing some of his confidence. “As long as you and Laurel don’t already have plans with your mother. You didn’t mention any. And I suppose Lisa isn’t technically family yet—”

“Len,” Sara interrupts gently. “Time with Laurel and Lisa sounds perfect. I’ll make sure I call my mom at some point, but she’s out of town again at some end-of-year teaching conference. I would say we should invite Felicity, too, but I think she’s taking Donna out for manicures or something.”

He leans in for another kiss, this one on the lips and quite a bit more thorough than the last. He looks smug when they pull apart, the lovable ass.

“If you want a shower,” he says, “I can let our sisters know what’s going on.”

She kisses him again before taking him up on the offer, not really stopping to think about it all until she’s under the stream of warm water. She rinses her hair and lets her hand fall to her stomach.

Mother’s Day. Sara is a mother, or will be soon, depending how she looks at it. She doesn’t feel like one yet, she doesn’t think, but there are those bouts of protectiveness, and her mind drifts to the kid more and more frequently. It’s a lot, and Sara’s glad Leonard didn’t go overboard.

She grins to herself as she starts putting together plans for Father’s Day.

***

Leonard feels a moment’s apprehension when the women inform him he’s joining them at the movies, a second of dread as he pictures being subjected to the latest romantic comedy to be all the rage.

He really should’ve known better.

The women discuss movie choices without his input, quickly deciding on an action/crime thriller that’s just been released. He enjoys the movie, but he's distracted repeatedly, when Sara and their sisters laugh, when Sara tucks herself into his side.

Afterward, they find an ice cream parlor, and Leonard just sits back and watches. They're all so happy, and even if he hadn't started the day in a good mood, he suspects he'd have ended up there eventually. Lisa is relaxed, and Laurel has dropped any hint of disapproval or worry. Sara is grinning, at them and at him, and Leonard decides there's something he needs to do.

He needs to thank Raymond for suggesting he do something for the day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally expecting this fic to be 16 chapters, about 2k-3k words each, probably 38k long total.
> 
> Ha. Haha. (I mean, it was fair; my longest fic before this was 32k. But yeah.)
> 
> Moving into the second half, there will be some changes with how quickly time moves, but otherwise, it’s the same story continuing forward.
> 
> I am trying my very best to stick with the once-a-week posting, but I’m completely out of already-written chapters. If life cooperates, you’ll have another chapter in a week, as usual. Otherwise, it may be two weeks instead.


	17. Forever Can Never Be Long Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Here, we start season two. I’ll continue with the little nods where able, though for obvious reasons, we won’t be seeing canon Sara/Len scenes throughout the second half. The pacing changes here, too; each chapter will cover two weeks rather than just one. Posting schedule will stay once a week as long as I can keep up (I wrote this one yesterday!). Otherwise, it’ll drop to once every other week, but still on Tuesdays.
> 
> Also the chapter titles switch here to Train’s “Marry Me.”
> 
> Also also, adult scene in the section starting with “The long weekend is nice.”

Getting back to work feels good.

Not that Sara exactly took as much time off work as she intended, but there’s still something akin to relief at the feel of settling into her new office. It’s small, and Leonard apologized, but she’s the newest of the administrative trio at Waverider Acquisitions, so it makes sense for her to take the smallest office.

Besides, planning meetings usually take place in Leonard’s office, anyway, with her, Leonard, and Mick. In her office, she’s got a computer with access to all their files, a television on the wall, a view of the city from a small window, and a drawer full of easy snacks.

They’re healthier than she’d have picked out on her own, of course, but Leonard did a good job of choosing things she likes, and Sara wanted nothing more than to dispel the trace of uncertainty on his face as she took in the selection. They ended up christening her office rather thoroughly.

After hours, obviously. She may still be bordering on insatiable, but she has _some_ level of decorum.

Usually.

Regardless, she settles in well in her new office, in her new role, and before the first week has passed, she’s amazed at how normal everything feels. She fits well with the team.

She already knew that, really, but it’s different being there on a daily basis.

Sara’s never lacking in options for company with lunch. She eats with Leonard, Mick, Felicity, or a combination of them. It’s a little stressful eating with Mick sometimes, she quickly realizes; he likes to tilt his chair back and prop his feet on the desk, leaning so far back that she’s really not sure how he doesn’t fall.

She sighs, content, as she sends an email to the team, outlining a simple job for the following week. She has a few minutes before she needs to move onto the next item on her list, so she opens up an instant messenger and pulls up Kendra’s chat box.

_Hey. How’s Coast City?_

She doesn’t have to wait long for a response.

_Good! About to head to lunch with Carter. I’ll catch you later?_

Sara agrees and closes the window, then sits back in her chair, an idle hand on her stomach.

Even the pregnancy has started feeling almost normal. Kendra’s departure is probably the only thing she hasn’t adjusted to yet, but Kendra’s doing well, and Sara can’t help but be happy for her friend.

Normal.

If someone had told her six months ago that she’d have an entirely different job, be living with someone she didn’t even know at the time, expecting his child, and that all of it would feel _normal?_

She’d never have believed them.

It’s true, though. Things feel normal, and right, and good.

Her computer chimes with an email from Leonard, okaying her plan and asking what she’s in the mood to eat for dinner that night, and Sara grins.

It really is good.

***

The mission is simple, a perfect one for Ray to take point on. They’re testing security at a pawn shop that only has one camera and a friendly, unobservant employee. Ray, following Sara’s instructions from the week prior, has Leonard distract the cashier with conversation while Ray pockets a couple small-but-valuable items. It’s easy.

It would be easier if there weren’t quite so much chatter over the comms.

Raymond’s quietly joining in, which really isn’t the smartest move, but it will serve to further underline exactly how bad the security is here. Mick and Felicity are in the surveillance van down the block. Sara’s listening in remotely from the office, and she’s texting Felicity when she has something to add.

The topic isn’t work, of course, not even tangentially.

“Makes sense to have it at my place,” Mick’s saying. “Plenty of room.”

“Yeah,” agrees Raymond, “our place is perfect for a Memorial Day cookout this weekend. We should invite everyone!”

It’s impressive, really, how the man can sound so enthusiastic in a whisper.

Leonard tries to keep track of his conversation with the cashier while he listens to the guest list grow. After the events of the past few weeks, the S.T.A.R. Labs team’s invitations are a given, in addition to Waverider’s. Significant others bring the count higher, though admittedly not by too much. Felicity mentions a couple people she thinks might fit well with the group, and Ray happily extends the invitation to them, too, with a grunt of approval from Mick.

“Sara says we have to have cheeseburgers,” Felicity relays, and there’s overlapping chatter as both men quickly agree. Leonard tries to hide his grin by covering a cough, and the conversation shifts instantly.

“Whoops,” Ray says. “I think we’re distracting Leonard.”

“Boss can multitask,” Mick says.

“Really?” Felicity sounds skeptical. “Because the cashier’s been waiting on an answer for a solid minute.”

Shit. Leonard tries to remember the question and comes up blank.

“He asked if you like the weather today,” Felicity supplies in a mock whisper. “Really challenging stuff.”

“It’s nice enough,” Leonard says amicably. “I tend to prefer winter, myself.”

Ray hums a few bars of a Disney song, and Leonard closes his eyes, pained by the snickering that follows, then refocuses on the cashier, successfully tuning out his team for the rest of the mission. They’re distracting, irreverent, and unprofessional, and Sara wastes no time in teasing him when he gets back to the office.

He doesn’t think he’d change a thing.

***

The long weekend is nice, he decides as he wakes on Saturday. Sara’s front is plastered to his back, as close as she can get. She’s nuzzling his neck as her hand wanders over his bare chest and abdomen. She’s wearing a loose t-shirt—his, he thinks—and underwear, and nothing else. Her chest is warm and soft against him, and her legs move to slide enticingly against his.

“Looking for something?” he murmurs as her hand dips lower.

She hums. “Got something to look for?” Her fingers trail lower still, then trace the skin just beneath the band of his boxers.

And then she pulls back and tickles his side.

He laughs and curses, jerking away and rolling over to glare at her as she smirks at him. His heart is racing from the sudden rush of adrenaline, but the way her eyes dance at him makes it easy for his mind to pull him back to where he was when he woke.

Still, turnabout is fair play, right?

Sara holds up her hands protectively and grins more widely as he reaches for her, intent clear, laughter ringing through the room as he manages to get a spot just above her knee. Sara twists and comes at him again, and the few minutes of back and forth end with her panting underneath him, her wrists pinned in one of his hands while the other threatens at her side.

“Okay, okay, I give up,” she breathes, and he ducks down to kiss the smile from her face.

Her hands come up to pull him closer before he’s even realized he let her go, and he shifts his hips, pressing into her and making her moan. They shed their clothes without really losing contact, something they’ve gotten pretty good at, and when he slides inside her a few minutes later, he drops his face to her shoulder while she tilts her hips up to take him deeper.

Both of them are still breathing hard from their play by the time Leonard starts moving, long, even thrusts that have Sara quickly starting to tighten around him. She won’t quite come like this, he knows, not without either a faster pace or some attention to her clit. He keeps it up until she’s babbling and threatening him by turn, pulling him as close as she can, and his own body feels impossibly tense and ready to let go.

He snakes a hand between them, rubbing firmly, meeting the frantic pace she’s demanding, and she comes hard. He speeds up, drawing it out for her as long as he can before he’s coming, too, all other sensations fading away for long seconds.

Once he’s regained control of body and mind, he looks down at Sara, trying for a stern expression. She just laughs, sated and relaxed. “Good morning,” she says, and he slips out before falling to his back beside her and taking her hand in his.

“I’m reasonably certain you’re evil,” he mutters, but his smile is clearly audible, and Sara laughs again. “Saturday mornings are supposed to be relaxing.”

“You’re not relaxed?” she asks innocently, rolling toward him and propping herself up on an elbow.

He pulls their joined hands to his lips, kissing her fingers. “I am, but there were easier ways to get there.”

“You can't tell me it wasn't fun, though,” she says, challenging. “I'm totally gonna have you beat when we can actually spar, you know.”

“I'm well aware,” he responds dryly. Her local dojo had featured her in a training video she'd shown him last week. He'd already known she was good, of course, but research before they really knew each other wasn't the same as seeing her power and grace after feeling her firm muscles beneath him, over him, around him.

“Maybe next time, I'll let you take it easy.” There's that innocent tone in her voice that he doesn't trust in the slightest. “I still owe you for that massage last month, after all.”

Leonard doesn't bother responding, just tugs her closer, and they stay like that until they're ready to get up.

***

Sara figures after their less-than-relaxing—but totally worth it—activities to start the morning, they can relax the rest of the day. After lunch, she suggests an action movie marathon. He counters with a suggestion for action/sci-fi, and they settle in on the couch, Sara tucked against Leonard's side.

After a few minutes, she rubs her grumbling stomach absently.

Then she freezes.

It's not her stomach growling. The soft but insistent flutter is low and feels different than hunger or indigestion.

“Sara?” Leonard sounds mildly concerned.

Sara isn't really sure what her expression is, what he's seeing. It feels like everything has just changed again, gotten shoved abruptly into reality.

“The baby’s kicking.” Tears are pressing at her eyes. She's not even sure what her strongest emotion is right now. There's elation and love and excitement and fear, all because this is a real, living thing inside her that can do things like _kick._

She feels Leonard's hand on hers, gentle. “Can I…”

She pulls both their hands away and lifts her shirt before putting Leonard's hand firmly atop where the fluttering is slowing down. “Can you feel it?”

He shakes his head but doesn't move his hand.

“It stopped,” she says after a couple minutes. He still doesn't move his hand, but he turns his attention from her stomach, meeting her eyes, his own bright and curious.

“What did it feel like?”

Sara sniffs, then makes a face as she tries to find the words. “Like bubbles hitting one spot, from the inside.”

The movie plays on in the background as they sit there, as Sara adjusts to her newest idea of normal, Leonard's hand still warm and comforting on her skin.

***

Sara is impressed by Mick’s house and tells him as much when they show up on Memorial Day a couple days later.

“Thanks,” he grunts, ushering her and Leonard inside. “The boss made me open a savings account instead of blowing all my money on women and beer. It paid off.”

It's an older house, but it's clearly been loved and well-maintained. The brick is still clean and sturdy, and the inside is open and inviting. He leads them to the backyard, where they're welcomed much more enthusiastically by Ray, who's standing in front of a grill with Professor Stein.

“Hey, you made it!” Ray waves a pair of metal tongs as he speaks, until Jax reaches over and snags them from him, handing them to the professor.

“Thank you, Jefferson,” the older man says.

Ray blinks, then refocuses on Sara and Leonard. “I guess I’m done at the grill,” he mutters, joining them. He grins as he starts explaining everything. “There are drinks in the cooler here and more in the fridge. There are snacks and finger foods over at that table, and burgers, brats, and hot dogs will be ready in maybe half an hour.” He looks between them, waiting for a response.

“Thanks, Ray,” Sara says.

He beams, and Sara can’t help but feel a rush of affection for him. Anyone else would probably still be primarily upset over the loss of their significant other—it’s not as if he and Kendra’d only had an idle flirtation—but instead, he’s just happy to be entertaining his friends.

“Pretty much everyone’s here, except Felicity and Oliver and whoever they were bringing with them,” he says. “You can hang out with whoever you want or come watch me argue with the professor about how to cook burgers.”

“Both of you are wrong,” Mick butts in, grabbing a couple beers from the cooler and handing one to Leonard. “Sara, there’s water and some of those lollipop things in the kitchen, if you want ‘em. Make yourself at home while I show everyone how to cook.”

Leonard squeezes her hand before they separate. He joins the already-arguing men at the grill, and Sara rolls her eyes before looking around the large, fenced backyard. She spots Dr. Snow and Dr. Wells talking to Kara, and she moves to join them.

“Hi, Caitlin,” she says, remembering at the last minute not to call her by her title. She can deal with being social with her doctor, she thinks, but they could probably both stand not being reminded of the things Caitlin’s seen, at least not while the doctor is off-duty. “Dr. Wells,” she adds politely. “Kara,” she says last, returning Kara’s smile almost involuntarily.

“Sara!” her friend replies immediately, holding her arms out for a hug, which Sara accepts with a laugh. “How are you doing? How’s the baby? How’s Leonard? How’s—”

“One question at a time, perhaps, Miss Danvers,” Dr. Wells interrupts in a tone that says he’s all too familiar with Kara’s enthusiasm.

He’s just as bad at pretending he doesn’t like it as Leonard is. Caitlin bumps her shoulder into her colleague's in mild reproval, but Sara notes that neither of them pull away afterward, their arms staying in slight contact. With a smirk, Sara turns her attention back to Kara, who’s lost none of her enthusiasm at the interruption.

“I’m good,” Sara answers. She considers sharing the fact that she felt the baby move over the weekend, but she decides she wants to keep that between herself and Leonard for now. “So are the baby and Leonard. How are you?”

“I’m good!” Kara launches enthusiastically into an explanation of a blog she’s just gotten the okay for, where she can report on certain things that her newspaper wouldn’t approve. “I’ve wanted to be able to tackle that stuff for a while, more social or speculative issues, you know? But I knew it couldn’t be associated with the paper since I can’t always provide sources my boss would accept, like especially if it’s something I found out through S.T.A.R Labs, who can’t often go on the record.” She gestures to Dr. Wells, who looks simultaneously proud and annoyed. Kara provides the blog’s URL, and Sara pulls it up on her phone, leaving the tab open so she can explore it later.

“I’ll check it out, thanks,” Sara says. “Does Iris work on it with you?”

Kara nods. “She helps a lot when we have to get out of the office to find stuff. I’m better with the online research.” She adjusts her glasses self-consciously, and Sara smiles.

“I bet you two make a great team.”

“We do,” Kara answers. “We couldn’t do any of it alone, though. We work with Barry sometimes, and my sister and her boss, and a couple friends from the newspaper, Winn and James.”

“Don’t forget about the new guy.” Iris has appeared out of nowhere, Barry grinning at her side.

At Iris’s words, Kara turns bright pink. “Well, he’s not… I mean he’s…” Kara stammers. “He’s infuriating,” she manages after a few seconds. “He makes me want to throw things half the time.”

“And the other half?” Sara asks, prompted by the mischief in Iris’s gaze.

Kara glares at Iris for a moment before wrinkling her nose. “The other half is even worse, ‘cause I just want to kiss the smug grin off his face.”

Even Dr. Wells cracks a bit of a smile at that, though he turns quickly toward Caitlin to try to hide it. The conversation eventually shifts, and Sara wanders to an empty spot along the fence line, closing her eyes and tilting her head up toward the warm sunlight. It’ll be too hot soon, probably, but right now, it’s about perfect.

She opens her eyes again, seeking out Leonard without conscious thought. He’s already watching her, smiling softly when she catches his eyes.

A touch of the warm, pleasant feelings leave her when she sees Oliver is crossing the backyard, his destination clear as he moves straight toward her, a glass in each hand. She waves for Leonard to let them be when she sees her lover tense. Sara knows he’ll be there quickly enough if the interaction goes south, but she’s feeling up to whatever gets thrown at her, for the moment.

Oliver stops in front of her and hands her one of the glasses. She takes it, eyeing the liquid suspiciously.

“It’s just lemonade,” he says, and Sara only picks up on the impatience because she’s known him for so long. He’s clearly trying his best to be polite, using the same tone as he does in the interviews he actually cares about.

She takes a sip and raises her eyebrows. “Did you actually make this?” It tastes homemade. At minimum, it’s obviously not just something cheap from a jar; there’s no hint of that chemical aftertaste.

“Felicity did, when I told her I wanted to bring you something.” He shrugs, one hand twitching at his side like he’s not sure what to do with it, the other clutching his glass. “I wanted to apologize. I’ve been more of an ass than usual lately.”

“I still probably shouldn’t have punched you,” Sara allows, taking another sip.

Oliver smiles wryly. “No, I definitely deserved that.” There’s a moment of awkward silence, and he sighs. “Look, I’m happy for you, alright? I really am. And I’m not gonna try to make any excuses about my behavior, because there aren’t any. But I wanted to say I’m done with that. You get nothing but support from me from here on out.”

Sara takes a breath, letting go of any lingering hurt and frustration as she exhales. They have a long history, and she really does believe he usually means well. Still, she’s allowed to give him a hard time. “Felicity’s leaving you if you don’t start acting supportive, isn’t she?” she asks, tone light.

Oliver’s lips pull up to one side, and his eyes land on Felicity for a moment before returning to Sara. “That’s part of it.” The smile drops, and his tone is as serious as she’s ever heard it. “I’d like to think I’d have gotten here on my own, though. I was a jerk, and you didn’t deserve that.”

“I didn’t,” Sara confirms. “But if you’re ready to be my friend again instead of whoever you’ve been the past few months, I can pretend it never happened.”

“Deal,” Oliver says, finally taking a sip of his drink. A few minutes of not-entirely-awkward silence pass before he waves someone over who Sara doesn’t recognize. “Sara,” he says as the man joins them, “I’d like you to meet Nate Heywood. Nate, this is Sara.”

“Nice to meet you,” Nate says, and Sara passes her drink to her left hand so she can shake his hand. “Oliver says you’re a security expert.” He waits for Sara’s nod before he continues. “I’m a historian and sort of a professional scholar. I’ve been working on isolating patterns with fluctuating crime rates and false alarms, and Oliver said he knew someone who could help.”

***

Leonard watches Sara talk with Oliver and the new guy, who Mick calls Pretty in lieu of a name. As she visibly relaxes, he does, too, turning his attention back to Mick and Barry. They’re arguing about whether fire or vibration is more effective at taking down a building.

“It totally depends on what the building’s made of,” Felicity chimes in, joining them, “and how it’s shaped, what the acoustics are, that sort of thing.” Felicity has woman with her who Leonard’s never met. It takes her a few seconds to remember, and then her eyes widen. “Oh! This is Amaya. Amaya, that’s Leonard, Mick, and Barry.”

Amaya seems calm, collected, and mildly amused. “Nice to meet you,” she says, her voice soft but confident.

“Amaya’s a conservation biologist,” Felicity says, sounding proud.

“What’s that mean?” Mick asks, studying the newcomer intently.

“I study animals and how to keep them alive. Not individually so much, but groups of animals in the wild, or occasionally in a zoo if a species is struggling but can’t be released.”

“Fascinating,” Mick murmurs, and Amaya smiles, clearly picking up on the gruff sincerity.

“Time to eat!” Ray enthusiastically breaks the moment, and everyone starts getting food. Some sit at the picnic tables, some move inside, and some, like Sara, sit in the grass with their backs against the wooden fence.

Leonard makes his way over to her, sitting down with just inches between them, and she closes the distance as soon as he’s settled, leaning lightly against him as she eats.

“This is pretty good,” she says, swallowing a bite of cheeseburger. “Who ended up doing the cooking?”

Leonard chuckles. “Mick, mostly, with Jax, Stein, and Ray as backseat drivers.”

“And what were you doing while they cooked?” She looks at him, eyes shining.

“Supervising. Obviously.” He smirks, and she leans over to kiss his cheek before she continues eating.

She nudges him after a few minutes. “What’s going on there?” She gestures at Mick, who’s eating in the seat nearest the grill. That’s not really noteworthy.

The fact that Mick keeps sneaking glances toward Amaya, though, is. Especially when, as they watch, he turns pink for a moment at something she says. The man washes his food down with more beer before he replies.

“You think it’s a budding romance?” Leonard asks, just a trace of sarcasm in his voice, more at the words than the idea.

Sara sets down her empty plate and leans into Leonard more fully. “I guess we’ll have to see,” she says.

He hums his agreement, then turns his attention to the man who’d come with Oliver. “What’s with the boy band member who’s talking to Ray?”

The two geeks—because clearly, this guy can’t be anything but, not with the animated way he’s arguing with the science types—are so busy gesturing that they’ve barely touched their food.

“Nate. He wants to study us, something about the way we affect historical patterns of theft,” Sara says, sounding vaguely amused. “I set him up with an appointment next week. He’s actually pretty smart. I was thinking maybe we could take him on as a consultant, but I didn’t say anything. Wanted to run it by you first.”

“We’ll have to see,” he says, echoing her words. He finishes eating and wraps an arm around Sara, settling a hand on her stomach. The party continues around them, some of the quieter guests coming to join them in their little corner of the yard, others growing louder as they debate one thing or another. After a while, Leonard and Sara split up again, Sara talking with Barry while Leonard finds a fellow sci-fi lover in Cisco.

The whole gathering is more than pleasant, but still, by the time they’re ready to leave, Leonard’s looking forward to the quiet.

“Tell me we don’t have anything else planned for at least a month,” he groans as they head toward home, fully aware he’s being dramatic, but Sara smiles, just as he was going for.

“You know your birthday’s next week, right?” Sara says. “And you know that now that Mick and Ray are living together, there’s no way you’re getting out of at least a little get-together.”

The groan this time is a little more genuine.

“What do you want for your birthday, anyway?” Sara asks.

“To get out of having a party,” he says immediately.

She snorts, then studies him contemplatively. “Is that what you really want? You know everyone would understand.”

Leonard considers it for a minute, then sighs. “No. A party is fine.” He lets go of the steering wheel with one hand so he can point at Sara. “But nobody is to know I agreed to this.”

Sara snags his hand and clasps it in hers, resting it on her thigh. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll let you keep your bad boy reputation. Your secret’s safe with me.”

Leonard’s thoughts are occupied for the rest of the drive. He tries to think about something he wants, but his mind is pulled instead, repeatedly, to something he wants to buy for Sara.

Something that shows the forever they both want.


	18. Enough with You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much, much too long since last update. Life kinda laughed at my writing schedule. I’m out of town for another few weeks, but while I’m here, my migraines are basically non-existent. I’m on my longest stretch of migraine-free I’ve had in over two years. I hope it holds once I get back home, but if it doesn’t, that once again complicates things.
> 
> ANYWAY, I update on my tumblr (captainwhogotthecanary) when I know there will be a delay or when I know an update is coming soon, so follow me there if you can put up with my rambling ;) In the meantime, any updates before mid July were done on my tablet, so please excuse me if there are more typos than usual :)

“Are you kidding me?” Lisa sounds incredulous, with the slightest trace of excitement in her voice.

“Just meet me, would you?” Leonard hangs up, knowing his sister will show like he’s asked.

He feels entirely out of his element in the store, which is ridiculous; jewelry stores are relatively frequent targets, and sizing up the merchandise should be second nature. Today, though, he’s not picking a ring based on how difficult it’ll be to snag or whether it falls into a client’s target price range.

He’s looking for a ring that’ll suit one Sara Lance.

“Can I help you, sir?” the employee behind the display asks cordially, and Leonard tries to smooth out the frown that’s his initial response.

“No. Thank you,” Leonard answers, calling on a bit of his persona’s confidence. The associate nods and moves on to the next potential customer, and Leonard looks back down at the matching sets in front of him, the diamonds sparkling in the light. He chose this store because of its many, quality choices, but that doesn’t mean he thinks an associate will be able to help him choose a ring for someone they’ve never met.

It’s entirely possible he’s overanalyzing things, but he doesn’t want Sara’s ring chosen by a stranger.

He walks to another selection of wedding bands and engagement rings, scanning them with his practiced eye and coming up short. Nothing is jumping out at him, nothing catching his attention. He gets immersed in studying the rings, anyway, and only just manages not to startle when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks back to see Lisa standing behind him, looking disproportionately amused.

Standing behind her is Mick, who looks almost emotional.

“I’m glad I could count on you for discretion,” Leonard tells his sister dryly.

Lisa drops her hand and shrugs a shoulder. “You can’t honestly tell me you weren’t going to tell Mick. I just saved you a step _and_ got you more help finding the right ring. You should be thanking me.”

Leonard feels the corner of his mouth tugging upward, and he nods at Mick before turning to scowl back down at the rings.

“You didn’t call us here to ignore us, right?” Lisa asks. Her presence helps settle him, as does Mick’s, and he takes a breath before turning to face both of them properly, crossing his arms.

“No,” he answers, declining to remind her that he’d only asked her to come, not the both of them. He’s glad his friend came, too, even if he doesn’t have to admit it.

“You’re getting _engaged_ , big brother.” Lisa looks more sentimental than he thinks he’s ever seen her, her voice falling just shy of a question. “I figured it was coming, but still, it’s a big step.”

Her tone isn’t disapproving, and Leonard takes a breath before he responds, glancing at Mick, who’s listening quietly. “I’ve known I wanted it for a while now.” He drops his arms to his sides. “Hell, I’ve suspected it could end up here since before she got pregnant. I needed to make sure Sara and I were on the same page, though. I have, so here I am.”

“You already asked her?” Mick finally breaks his silence.

“No,” Leonard snaps. “Sort of,” he amends immediately.

Great, they’re both trying not to laugh at him.

“We talked about it,” Leonard clarifies. “I don’t want to actually propose until after the baby’s here, but we know precisely where we’re headed.”

“Why wait?” Mick asks.

Leonard turns back to the display. “I don’t want her to ever have to wonder whether I’m marrying her for the baby.”

“Or whether she’s marrying you for the baby,” Lisa adds, almost defiant.

Leonard smirks before getting serious again. “Exactly. I figure once the baby’s old enough that we’ve got things at least slightly under control, nobody will think we’re getting married just because she’s pregnant. Including us.”

Lisa and Mick exchange a glance, then watch Leonard silently for long seconds. Finally, Lisa nods curtly, and Mick softens back into something just shy of a grin.

“You’ll want a platinum ring,” Lisa says, expression shifting to something both fond and exasperated as she leads them over to the relevant display. Leonard doesn’t bother being surprised she already knows where to find it. “Something without prongs, so either inlaid diamonds or bezel set. That way, Sara can still be active, fight if she needs to, without worrying about ruining her ring or getting it caught on everything.”

Leonard nods and looks down at the greatly narrowed down selection in front of him. He can practically feel Mick’s amusement, and it’s understandable, if he’s being honest; Leonard knew all this. He didn’t need his sister to tell him.

Except, apparently, even for an engagement in which the answer’s already been given for a question that won’t be asked for months yet, Leonard is too nervous to think straight.

Of course his best friend and his sister both find this amusing. Lisa wears a smile as she looks at the rings beside Leonard, and Mick is typing something on his phone.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Leonard says, though he thinks it’s probably stating the obvious.

Mick shrugs a shoulder and puts his phone back in his pocket. “It was only Ray. Says congratulations.” When Leonard stares, Mick crosses his arms. “Boyscout won’t tell anybody.”

Leonard takes another deep breath and turns to the selection of rings, finally bringing them properly into focus. The rings with inlaid stones have diamonds that are too small. Not that he thinks Sara would mind, but some perverse part of Leonard does; he’s a professional thief, and his fiancée should have a respectable diamond. About half the rings in front of him have too many parts that stick out, making them at risk for damage to the ring or to things the ring contacts.

After a few minutes, he gestures for one of the employees. “Can I see those?” Leonard asks, pointing.

The rings are soon in front of him. It’s a set with an engagement ring and complementary wedding bands, and Leonard doesn’t have to look at the price tag to know how much they’re asking for the understated elegance of the set.

“Good choice,” Lisa says, and Leonard hears Mick’s grunt of agreement.

Leonard picks up the pieces one at a time, studying them for flaws and finding none. They’re sturdy and attractive and functional, and he can picture them where they belong, the matching jewelry on intertwined hands, a smile on Sara’s face, and a baby between them.

It’s entirely possible he’s gotten much too sentimental.

“Let’s celebrate with lunch,” Lisa suggests as Leonard finishes his purchase.

As they head to a nearby, casual restaurant, Leonard finds himself thinking through all the events that still need to come and go before he can properly ask Sara to marry him, starting with his birthday, and he feels an odd mix of impatience and satisfaction that makes him want little more than to pull Sara into his embrace.

No, it’s more than a possibility that he’s gotten much too sentimental.

***

Sara tries not to laugh at Leonard’s apprehension as they approach the house. It looks just like it did last time they were here, except it’s silent, no sign of even Mick and Ray, who are hosting.

He stops in front of the door, staring at it for a moment before turning to her. “A bunch of people are about to yell at me using my birthday as an excuse, aren’t they?”

“What would make you think that?” she asks lightly. She wouldn’t keep him nervous for long, but he’ll be put out of his misery as soon as he opens the door.

He fixes her with an almost glare, then turns back to the door, tensing as he reaches for the handle and opens it. He doesn’t move, his hand still on the doorknob, and Sara leans over to peer around him.

There are decorations everywhere, so many that she’s not even sure whether anyone is in the room. Almost all the decor carries some variation on “Happy Birthday!” She sees one stray banner, though, that proclaims a happy New Year.

“Hello?” she calls when Leonard still hasn’t moved.

“Come on in!” Ray yells back, and finally, Leonard starts forward, navigating the decorations like they’re a minefield. Sara gives into the urge to laugh as she follows behind him, and his second attempt at a glare for her is even worse than the first, ruined entirely by the way his lips pull up to one side.

When they reach the kitchen, Sara sees everyone’s already there. The kitchen, at least, is more tamely decorated, probably because it would be a fire hazard otherwise. Ray, Mick, and Lisa are all wearing party hats. Ray wears a grin, Lisa a smirk, and Mick a scowl as he holds out a hat to each of them.

“If I gotta wear one of these,” Mick says gruffly, “so do you.”

Ray beams at him, and Sara puts on her hat before turning expectantly toward Leonard, who’s holding the hat in front of him like it might bite. He looks at each of them in turn, settling on Sara before he sighs.

“Fine,” he says, not nearly as grumpy as Sara thinks he’s aiming for. “This everyone?” he asks, putting on the hat.

“We knew you didn’t want a big party,” Sara says, “so it’s just us.”

“I made sure we decorated enough to make up for the short guest list,” Ray adds before grinning at Mick. “My roommate helped.”

Mick crosses his arms and levels a severe look toward Sara and Leonard, as if daring them to comment on his assistance. She hears Leonard snort quietly, but their reactions are apparently acceptable; Mick relaxes and turns to whatever he was doing on the stove. Leonard squeezes her hand before joining Mick, and the smells quickly grow from pleasant to extremely tempting. The fact that the two work well together, Sara’s found, extends neatly to when they cook. Leonard’s not a bad cook, but Mick has him beat. The two of them working on a meal together, though, yields results that are something altogether amazing.

Ray and Lisa cross the kitchen to join her, and the three of them catch up on work and life in general for a few minutes, with Sara increasingly distracted by the smell of the food. At least she has an excuse, though. She rests a hand on her stomach, and Ray notices immediately.

“How far along are you now?” he asks.

“Eighteen weeks,” Sara answers. “We’ll find out the gender soon.”

“Are you having a reveal party?” Ray sounds much too excited, and sure enough, Leonard answers from across the room.

“No,” he says loudly, firmly.

Ray pouts for only a moment while Sara and Lisa exchange and amused glance. He perks up again quickly. “Have you seen that website that tells you the baby’s size with cool terms? Not like apple or eggplant or whatever.”

Sara blinks at him, and he seems to take that as the negative that it is, pulling out his phone and tapping something in.

“Like right now,” Ray says, “your baby is the size of a Tribble.” He looks up. “That is awesome and a little terrifying. Oh! And next week, your baby will be the size of an Adipose.”

Sara continues to stare, but Ray seems entirely unaware of how thoroughly he’s lost her. Lisa’s amused gaze gives a warning before a pair of familiar arms wrap around her from behind, and Sara leans back into Leonard’s chest. He rests his chin on her shoulder, and Sara can feel his grin against her cheek.

“Tribbles are from Star Trek,” Leonard tells her, voice rumbling against her. “They’re cute, but they multiply. Adipose are from Doctor Who. Also bad in numbers.”

“Good thing you know you’re having just one,” Ray adds, putting his phone away again.

“Food’s ready,” Mick says, and there’s a flurry of activity as they relocate to the table.

As they eat, the conversation ebbs and flows, comfortable chatter and equally comfortable silence taking turns. Sara lets herself bask in all of it, shooting Leonard fond looks until Lisa catches her and rolls her eyes, smirking.

Those damned Snarts and their smirks. She’ll probably have to--get to--deal with them from her own child, too.

“Nate can’t make the meeting he was supposed to,” Ray tells them after letting his fork clatter to his empty plate. “He’s in the hospital. He’s okay, though,” he adds quickly. “He’s just got some medical issues that put him there sometimes.”

Mick and Lisa get up, and Sara grins expectantly at Leonard as the lights dim. Mick and Lisa return carrying a huge cake that’s covered in candles.

“One for every year, old man,” Lisa says, winking at Sara before turning her attention back to Leonard. They set the cake in front of him, and he glares before taking a breath to blow out the candles. It takes two tries--still impressive, Sara thinks--but he gets them all.

“Don’t know if that still counts,” Lisa teases. “You might not get your wish.”

“Don’t need to,” Leonard replies evenly, looking toward Sara. “I’ve got everything I want.”

She has just enough time to return his small smile before they’re bombarded by good-natured jeers from Lisa and Mick and a sentimental, “Aww,” from Ray.

Sara raises her eyebrows at Leonard while reaching a hand toward the closest corner of the cake, and he nods, his eyes sparkling in the still-dim light. She reaches out carefully, then moves quickly as she gets too close to hide her intentions. She grabs a handful of cake and throws it at Ray, not waiting for it to hit before she grabs another for Mick, then Lisa.

There’s a moment of stunned silence before chaos breaks loose, volume rising as everyone grabs for the edible ammunition. Sara starts out on Leonard’s team, but the food fight quickly devolves, and it’s soon every man for himself. It was definitely worth it, Sara thinks as she ducks behind a countertop to avoid a fistful of cake, taking with her an image of Leonard grinning, enjoying himself on his birthday.

Of course, that’s when Sara finally takes a blob of icing to the face.

Once the cake is gone--some of it eaten, but most washed down the drain--they do presents, all of which are pretty conservative. Leonard seems appreciative, and he holds her close as they sit on the couch afterward, listening to the others talk. After a few minutes, he leans over and presses an open, wet kiss to her cheek, accompanied by the brief sensation of tongue against skin.

“You missed some frosting,” he whispers in her ear as she laughs and pretends to pull away.

“You could’ve just told me instead of licking my face,” Sara says, making a show of wiping her cheek. He makes no move to release her or to defend himself if she tries to retaliate, so she leans back into his side. “So, is it a good birthday?” she asks, watching the animated way Ray interjects as Lisa and Mick bicker familiarly.

“The best one yet,” Leonard answers, quiet in his sincerity, and Sara presses her face against his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat against her cheek.

***

Leonard finds frosting in unlikely places for days, until he finally drags a willing Sara into the shower so they can clean each other more thoroughly.

She doesn’t seem to mind.

A week or so later, they’re cleaning together again, but it’s much less entertaining. Or at least, he won’t admit how entertaining it is to watch Sara, her face scrunched into a scowl that’s nothing like scary.

“I hate laundry,” she says, sighing as she tosses another clean shirt onto her pile of folded clothes. He attempts a sympathetic expression as he reaches out to straighten the now-crooked article of clothing. Judging by her glare, he fails miserably. With a shrug, he picks up the shirt and folds it properly before snagging another of his own shirts from the pile. “You know, we both make enough money that we could pay for someone to do our laundry for us.”

Leonard pauses, shrugging a shoulder before he continues folding. “I find it soothing. Not many things in life let you sort and organize them so neatly.”

“Like bed sheets,” Sara grumbles, and Leonard’s pensive thoughts are immediately replaced by humor once more. She gestures dramatically at the neat pile of linens between them. “Normal people can’t fold bottom sheets like that, Leonard.”

“Are you saying I have talented fingers?” He lowers his eyelids, watching her with an expression he knows distracts her every time.

She huffs, her eyes dropping to his lips as if on cue before sliding down further and lingering on his fingers, watching him as he absently continues folding.

“You know that’s not what I was saying,” she protests, forcing her eyes back to his. “Not _that_ way, at least.”

“Then you’re saying I do laundry better than you.” Leonard keeps his voice carefully level, knowing how she’ll respond.

Her eyebrows rise, and she dumps out the rest of the clean laundry into a heap on the bed, roughly separating it out into two piles. “You pick the pile,” she says, challenge clear, “and I’ll say when to start. Loser has to cook dinner.”

He could protest; he’s pretty sure all the clothes on both sides will be folded badly enough that he’ll end up having to redo them. There’s the challenge, though, and there’s Sara watching him expectantly, eyes shining and mouth set in a determined line.

“That one,” Leonard says, picking one of the piles, and Sara grins as they position themselves.

“Ready? And… Go!”

They speed through the laundry, some of the items ending up folded by only the loosest of definitions, and Leonard wins by a single pair of pants.

“It’s important,” he says calmly, everything in him going toward resisting a smirk or a triumphant grin, “to keep a cool head during these things.”

A pair of clean, lacy underwear hits him in the face, and he’s tackled by Sara a moment later, pressed back into soft cushions, laughing until her lips press against his.

By the time they’re done, none of the laundry has remained folded.

He considers it all an excellent use of time, nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter as soon as I can! No promises on when that is. I’ll probably write a few shorter things while I’m out of town, because it’s easier to find time here and there than it is to work on a bigger project, as much as I love said project.
> 
> Next chapter, we get the gender ;)


	19. Forget the World Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [It's been too long again!](http://captainwhogotthecanary.tumblr.com/post/164234934364/hey-guys) But here we go. I had a lot of fun with this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! Huge thanks to Tavyn and ClaudiaRain for helping me embrace the fun; I was going to go a safer route that would not have been nearly as satisfying.
> 
> In this chapter we get the big ultrasound, the gender reveal, and a Legends of Superflarrowverse party. There's also some correspondence with Kendra. She couldn't be left out of a chapter like this! Lastly, there's a digital painting to go with the appropriate scene. In short, this chapter is big (though not long) and fun and I hope it was worth the wait!
> 
> As a brief note regarding medical procedures, I took some creative license, and instead of having a separate ultrasound tech for the 20-week one as is more common, Caitlin is totally 100% qualified, capable, and willing.

_Hey Kendra,_

_How’ve you been? It's been forever since we got a chance to really talk, so I figured I'd send a little more than just “hey okay g2g see you later.”_

_The baby's been kicking way more often, and harder. Len can't feel it yet, but he's gotta be able to pretty soon. It's cool, but it's also kinda freaky as hell and only gonna get worse. Whatever you do, don't do a Google image search for baby kicking, omg_

_We've got the ultrasound this week, the big one where we find out the gender. We don't want to do a big reveal or anything, but I think Ray’s throwing a get together, so we'll see how that goes. We weren't gonna let him, but, well, you know how he gets. It's hard to say no to him when he's excited. I'd love you to come, if it wouldn't be too awkward, but I get it if you can't or you're too busy._

_Work is great. I plan about half our “heists” now, and really the Waverider team is just great to be around._

_Stuff with Leonard is just… I keep waiting to wake up, you know? I don't think I will or anything, and like I'm not constantly afraid of losing him, it's just that things are so good that sometimes it seems like it has to be a dream. Except I wake up, and he's right there in bed with me._

_His sister Lisa stopped by again the other day. She's pretty cool, and I kinda think we might've been friends even without Leonard. As it is, we're ending up more like sisters except without all the mess that came up between me and Laurel._

_Even things with Laurel have been good, honestly._

_Not that EVERYTHING in my life is good. Pregnancy is hard, and there's still mess with the bank that needs cleaning up eventually (which you know already, duh). But I have to stop and think about the negative because so much is good right now, and I never thought I'd have that._

_Anyway, I hope you're doing well and can talk soon._

_-Sara_

 

***

 

_Sara,_

_I can't believe you're finding out the gender already! I wish I could make it, but I just got a new job and I can't take off work yet. I'm actually *you* for the weekend security team at this little local bank. I run the team. It's just three of us, but I'm really taking to it. Working with you helped, but I've got my own style, too, and I'm really proud of myself._

_Things with Carter are surprisingly good. Getting away was a good call. We're figuring things out together, and we're fighting less. We'll always fight… It would be pretty boring if we didn't. But it's different. It's our normal, not the mess it was before we left._

_Give everyone my love._

_Miss you!_

_Kendra_

* * *

 

“Are you ready?” Sara asks Leonard. She takes the keys out of the ignition—she wasn't able to drive while sick, and she won't fit behind the wheel comfortably for too much longer, so she's driving while she can—and turns to look at him.

“Ready,” he agrees, trying for a smile.

“What's wrong?” Sara asks. He's been calm and collected for most of the pregnancy, but today he just looks… nervous.

“Nothing,” he answers, the word automatic. When she raises an eyebrow at him, he looks away. “Gender shouldn't matter, right?” he says, almost as if he's talking to himself. “And it's not like I care. The baby’s sex changes nothing for me. They can be either or both or neither.” He pauses, then turns back to Sara, meeting her eyes. “But this makes it so we can picture the baby. Sure, they might grow up completely different than we expect regardless, but it changes the mental image from some vague idea of _a_ child to _our_ child, complete with stereotypes and a tendency toward pink or blue.”

Sara nods, weighing his words, his seriousness. She needs to reassure him without belittling his concern, but she's not entirely sure she understands. “I think they'll like green best,” she says, and he blinks. “You're right; it doesn't matter,” she explains. “It feels big because…” She shrugs a shoulder. “We're learning something about our baby. We can't see him or her yet except what's on the machine, can't hold them, but we can find this out, start picturing whether we'll have a little girl or a little boy kicking ass in Tae Kwon Do.”

Leonard's lips twitch, and as some of the tension drains from his shoulders, Sara takes his hand. “I thought we'd start with Tai Chi,” he says wryly. “Less violent.”

Sara smiles at him. “Come on, let's go,” she prods gently. “We’ve got this. We’ll debate merits of the different martial arts later.”

Their wait is short once they’re inside, awkwardness overshadowed by anticipation. In the exam room, Caitlin greets them, calm and pleasant as if she does this every day.

Which, really, she probably does.

“Everything has looked good so far,” Dr. Snow explains as she gets ready. Sara’s on the exam table, gripping Leonard’s hand and focusing on how he’s returning the pressure. “No reason to be nervous,” Caitlin continues. “This is all standard procedure, and all three of you will be fine.”

Sara nods and releases a breath. “Sounds good.”

Caitlin gives them a brief technical rundown as she finishes and presses the tool to Sara’s exposed stomach. And then…

“There’s the baby,” Sara breathes. She’s dimly aware of Caitlin’s indulgent smile.

“Growing right on track,” says the doctor. Even Sara can see how much the baby has grown; whereas it used to fit easily in the view of the ultrasound, now she’s mostly just seeing a few body parts at a time.

Leonard is silent, drinking in the image of their child as Caitlin narrates, explaining what she’s looking at, falling into a professional silence as she saves photos to the file.

“Alright,” Caitlin says, pulling the wand away from Sara’s stomach and wiping her skin. “This is where I would _normally_ ask whether you want to know the gender.”

“Normally?” Sara echoes, placing her free hand on her abdomen.

“Is something wrong?” Leonard voices her concern aloud, and she squeezes his hand in gratitude.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Caitlin reassures them quickly. “Your baby looks healthy and is developing right on schedule.” She smiles when she sees them relax. “You have a lot of friends.” Her tone says she’s explaining what’s unusual here, but Sara fails to see the relevance. “Apparently,” Caitlin continues lightly, “and let me make sure I keep this straight… Ray spoke to Mick, who spoke to Barry, who spoke to Harrison, who spoke to me, and they asked me to keep the gender a secret from you until the party tomorrow.”

Sara blinks at Caitlin before turning to Leonard, who looks just as surprised as she feels.

Then again, she’s not sure why it comes as a shock in the slightest.

She chuckles, then _laughs,_ and Len joins her. “Only our friends,” she says as she catches her breath. “Only our friends could commandeer something like a gender reveal. First turning an ‘informal gathering’ into a party, and then asking to surprise us with our own kid.”

“Legally, of course,” Caitlin interrupts, “none of this has any impact on whether I tell you now or you find out tomorrow. The choice is yours, no matter how well-meaning your friends are.”

Sara thinks for a moment, then searches Leonard’s face. “We’ll wait for the party,” she says finally, grinning at the odd combination of affection and resignation in his expression before turning back to Caitlin, “if you’ll come as one of our guests.”

Caitlin smiles. “I think that can be arranged.”

* * *

 

_Kendra,_

_I know I told you I'd let you know whether we're having a boy or a girl as soon as I got home from the appointment, but you'll never guess what your ex started this time…_

* * *

 

Sara’s first impression when she leaves her room the next day after a much-needed last-minute nap is that her home has been invaded. There’s not a single unoccupied space outside of the bedrooms.

The second thing she notices is that her dad is there.

“Hi, Daddy.” She gives him a hug while she takes a moment to finish waking up. By the time she’s pulled back, Leonard has made it to her side. Sara smiles at him and looks around, ready to see who else is at this party she seems to have slept through the start of.

Really, she’s amazed they were all quiet enough not to wake her.

Donna is next to Quentin. Felicity is darting fond-but-exasperated looks at her mother from across the room, Ollie standing next to her. Ray is in the center of the room, and he’s beaming. Mick is standing in front of the closed nursery door as if he’s standing guard. Caitlin and Dr. Wells are on one side of him, and Amaya is on the other. Laurel is chatting with Cisco, Lisa, and Jax, and Barry and Iris are with Kara and some guy Sara doesn’t recognize but who’s clearly smitten with Kara and hasn’t bothered to look Sara’s way.

He’s the only one who hasn’t.

Sara waves, and everyone goes back to what they were doing. Leonard’s arm snakes around her waist as the hum of conversation resumes, louder now that she’s up.

“I wasn’t going to let them in until you woke up,” Leonard says, “but Ray pouted, and Mick said he’d fry anyone who woke you. I think they believed him.”

Sara huffs. “He’d probably be good for it. Is that how he ended up in charge of security?” She nods to where Mick has crossed his arms, and she takes note of Amaya’s good-natured amusement.

Her father answers. “Apparently he’s the one who painted the room, so aside from that doctor of yours, he’s the only one who knows.”

“He’s the Secret Keeper,” Ray chimes in, appearing magically at her other side. “You know, like in Harry Potter?”

Leonard looks at him. “You know things don’t end well for the Potters _or_ their Secret Keeper, right?” he drawls.

“Well,” Ray stammers, “Harry ends up fine. Mostly.”

“So you don’t even know whether it’s a boy or girl?” Donna asks, pulling them back on topic. “You’re the one who put together this wonderful party, right?”

Ray preens at the positive attention, and Sara makes a note to try to compliment him more often. He so often just wants to make others happy, and even if he goes about it differently than she does, he usually succeeds.

“I wanted to be surprised along with everyone else,” he says. “I had this great idea, you know? Len and Sara bought blue and pink paint for a stripe around the nursery, and I thought, ‘Why don’t we just get it painted, and then we can open the nursery for a reveal.’ Great, right?” Ray grins. “Anyway, I was going to hire somebody to paint so that we could all find out at once, except Caitlin, of course, but then Mick said that was a waste of money and he could do it instead.”

***

As Donna coos over Raymond’s ideas, Leonard pulls Sara closer against his side. He’s pretty sure he’s never had so many people in this apartment, and he’d like to never have so many people here ever again.

At the same time, though, he can’t shake the grudging gratitude for their presence, especially since Sara seems so content, a smile playing at her lips.

He’d do a lot more than this to make her happy. It helps that he knows she’d do the same.

After a few minutes, Sara goes over by the breakfast bar and starts talking with Felicity. Leonard nods to Quentin and Donna before joining Mick at the nursery door. They talk shop for a few minutes, and Leonard is pleasantly surprised when both Harrison and Amaya join in, giving some surprisingly insightful input. The others wander off, and Leonard’s left alone—as alone as is possible in the crowded apartment—with Mick.

“So, Boss, you ready for this?” Mick asks.

Leonard smirks. “I did think I was finding out _yesterday._ ”

“That’s not what I asked,” Mick returns.

Leonard is quiet a moment before he nods. “I think I’m ready.” He looks toward Sara, smiling in the kitchen. “I want to know everything I can about our child, and this is what we can know for now.”

“But?” Mick prompts.

Leonard shrugs a shoulder and looks back at his friend. “It’s not like this all _hasn’t_ been real, but this makes it… more.” _Eloquent, Snart._

Mick seems to get it, though, or at least, he doesn’t ask any more questions, just nods.

“Want a beer?” Leonard asks.

Mick shakes his head. “Ray would kill me if I got drunk on the job. I’ll take a water, though.”

Leonard smirks and claps a hand on Mick’s shoulder before he goes to the kitchen. Sara’s resting her elbows on the breakfast bar, talking to a man on the other side of it.

“My name’s kinda weird,” he’s saying, “so I usually go by Mike.”

“Mike,” Sara repeats. “And you’re here with Kara, right?”

“Yeah,” he answers, leaning forward and speaking in a lower voice that Leonard can only just hear over the sound of the water filling the glass. “I mean, this isn’t really my thing. Some baby thing for someone I haven’t met, but it’s someone Kara really likes, and being here makes her happy, so when she said I could come, I figured, why not, you know?”

Sara’s body is hidden by the breakfast bar from the chest down, and Mike must not have seen Sara fully yet. Leonard knows Sara well enough that he doesn’t need to look at her to see the mischievous amusement in her expression; he can hear it in her tone when she replies.

“Pretty brave, coming to a party for a pregnant woman you’ve never met. She could be unhinged or something.”

“Well,” Mike answers, clearly not yet catching on, “even if she was, it’s worth it to make Kara happy.”

“Kara’s pretty great, isn’t she?” Sara asks, more serious now. “Make sure you don’t hurt her. There will be a line of people to make sure you regret it.”

“Oh, believe me, I won’t,” he says emphatically. “I messed up a couple times early on, and that was bad enough. Now that we’re actually together, there’s no way I’m gonna screw it up again.” His voice lowers once more. “I can be kinda oblivious at times and miss out on social cues, but I’m learning.”

Leonard hides a grin as he moves to Sara’s side, water glass in one hand and a beer in the other. She turns to him and smiles, almost a smirk, then reaches up to give him a hug, standing taller on her tiptoes than she probably needs to.

“Shit,” he hears Mike mutter, and Leonard smiles against Sara’s cheek.

Leonard returns to Mick, and several more minutes pass before Ray gathers everyone’s attention.

“Okay!” the man says when the apartment has fallen quiet. “If everyone’s ready, could I have the guest of honor come front and center?” He gestures to the space just in front of the nursery, and Sara comes and joins Leonard. He puts his arm around her, the gesture automatic, grounding himself against both his emotions and the crowded rooms. “If you would do the honors?” Ray nods at Leonard, and Mick steps aside, exposing the nursery door for the first time in at least an hour, the man immediately accepting a beer from a smirking Harrison.

Leonard looks at Sara, who nods, and he takes a breath before he steps forward, Sara at his side, and opens the door.

“It’s a girl,” she breathes, taking in the room with him. She walks into the nursery, running a careful hand along the crib that hadn’t been there the night before.

“We wanted to surprise you with the crib,” Ray says, sounding a little self-conscious. “Me and Mick picked it out. They told us it was the safest one currently on the market. I hope that’s alright.”

Leonard sees tears in Sara’s eyes as she pulls the man in for a hug before crossing over to Mick and doing the same. Finally, she comes back to Leonard next to the crib, reaching up and giving him one of the tightest hugs he’s ever received. He buries his face against her neck and returns the embrace. He’s aware of congratulations and happy chatter from their friends, followed by understanding whispers when they don’t pull apart, and then the door is closed gently, giving them a moment alone.

“I hope she gets your eyes,” Sara says, pulling back to look at him after a little bit.

“I hope she gets your skills in kicking ass,” he responds, startling a chuckle out of her. He tilts his head for a kiss and wonders how the hell he ended up here, with a great job, an amazing almost-fiance, and a baby—a _daughter_ —on the way. “I love you,” he whispers. They don’t say it often, both preferring to show it instead, but in this moment, he needs to be sure she knows.

“I love you, too.” Sara’s eyes are shining, and Leonard pulls her close for another hug.

***

Once they’ve both gathered themselves, they open the nursery door, their friends clapping and cheering as they exit. They leave the door open, and Sara loses track of how many hugs they both get.

“Everyone’s so excited,” she says during a quiet moment with Mick and Amaya. “I didn’t expect everyone to be this happy we’re having a girl.”

“Don’t think anyone cares,” Mick says gruffly, and Sara looks at him.

“What he means, I think,” says Amaya, “is that everyone is happy because you’re happy, not because you’re having a girl.”

“What she said,” Mick agrees.

He and Ray end up being the last ones to leave, after profuse thanks from Sara—and tacit agreement from Leonard—and then the apartment seems almost unnaturally quiet. She tugs Leonard over to the couch, then rests against his side while he holds her close.

“We’re having a daughter,” she says.

“I know.” His voice is low and rough with emotion.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Sara remembers something and twists so she can see him without breaking his hold on her. “You know what this means, right?” she asks. When he raises an eyebrow, she continues, grinning. “We’re gonna have to start narrowing down names.”

Leonard chuckles, and when she gets comfortable again, he rests his head carefully atop hers. “Yes, but that can wait for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” she agrees, and she closes her eyes, lacing her fingers together with Leonard’s and resting both their hands on her stomach. “That sounds perfect.”


	20. One Thing Left to Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this final chapter, we see the next year or so of Sara and Leonard's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay.
> 
> I had fantastic momentum on this story (and writing in general), and then life hit me hard, and I’ve mostly only been able to manage short little chapters of things or short one-shots. This fic was originally only supposed to be 16 chapters, and it was plotted accordingly. While I did create a fairly detailed outline for the second half after I decided to continue, we have already hit all the plot points that made me start this fic in the first place. Life is getting better, but it isn’t slowing down, and I don’t see having enough of the right kind of writing time to finish another 14 chapters here any time soon.
> 
> I had a few choices, once acknowledging that. Abandoning the fic is never an option. Continuing to take up to a year between updates sounds ridiculously painful for me and for you dear readers. The third option, and the one I’ve chosen, is to use my outline to write a final chapter, still including everything I wanted for the second half of the story, but condensed into snippets and much less detail. 
> 
> Thank you so very much for sticking with me through this. You’ve all been amazing.
> 
> Here we go. I hope this end does the story justice!

“What about Carla?” Sara suggests, leafing through the baby names book that one of their friends had helpfully left behind. Nobody was admitting to it, but her money was on Ray.

“No,” Leonard answers, without looking up from the plans he’s working on for work.

“Amber? Julia?” Sara closes the book when nothing sounds quite right. “Maybe we should start with the last name.”

Leonard’s typing slows, then stops. “That’s not a bad place to start.” He gets up and joins her on the couch, watching her with those piercing eyes that still make it hard to think sometimes. “What were you thinking?”

“I think…” She searches his eyes, then exhales as she tries to focus. She may have brought it up, but that doesn’t mean she has an answer ready. She hasn’t really thought about it, despite everything. “I think I don’t like hyphenated names. They’re too long.”

“Alright.” He nods, but she can’t read his expression. “One of ours, then.”

It’s Sara’s turn to nod. She rests her hand on her stomach, covering the idle flutters that have become normal this time of day. “What do you think, little one?” she directs at her abdomen. “Are you a Snart or a Lance?”

Leonard is still watching her. “Is she answering?”

“Nope,” Sara says lightly. “Maybe if we knew her name, we could get her attention better.” She’s quiet for a minute, and Leonard doesn’t try to fill the silence. He takes Sara’s free hand, and she shifts her attention back to him. She takes a breath, the answer clicking into place as she squeezes his hand. “We’re getting married eventually, right? I know it’s not official or anything, but we’re… We’re on the same page there, right?”

He stills, and the pressure increases on her hand. “That’s the plan,” he answers, and she breathes, glad she didn’t misunderstand. He looks like he wants to kiss her, and she continues before either of them can get distracted.

“I know we’re not traditional in a lot of ways,” she says, “but I kinda thought I would take your name. You’ve given it a good reputation, everything you’ve done with Waverider. And it wouldn’t make sense for our baby to have a different last name if we’re both Snarts.”

That was apparently too much for him, because he leans in to kiss her. It’s brief, but he repeats it, and then again, and again, until Sara’s laughing.

“Is that a yes?” she asks.

He kisses her once more, this one lingering, before he pulls back. “That’s a yes.”

“Just the first name left, then,” Sara says, glaring at the baby name book.

“Don’t forget her middle name,” Leonard reminds her, and she collapses back against the couch in a dramatic heap. When he chuckles, she looks at him fondly.

“We’ll decide on a full name for baby Snart eventually, right?” she asks, settling against his side.

“We’ve got seventeen weeks to go,” Leonard agrees, kissing her head and pulling her close. “We’ll figure it out.”

***

Seventeen weeks sounds like a long time, in theory. In reality, it flies by. It’s littered with milestones, and with the finish line growing ever closer, it feels like Leonard’s life narrows to two things: Sara, and the fact that Leonard is about to become a father.

They’re at a 4th of July cookout at Ray’s when Leonard feels the baby move for the first time. Sara’s finished eating her ice cream, and she’s tucked against Leonard’s side, talking to Jax about… He doesn’t remember, honestly, because his thoughts scatter when the hand that’s resting on Sara’s stomach detects movement, a bump from the inside. He doesn’t think he reacts, but suddenly Sara’s looking up at him, a secret little smile on her lips. Not even the whistles and cheers from all of their friends can stop him from kissing her in that moment.

A couple weeks later, Sara’s cravings get particularly bad. Mostly he gets her whatever she wants if it’s in his power, but he has to draw the line somewhere.

“Peanut butter ice cream with pickles and potato chips is not food, Sara.”

“Sure it is.” She crosses her arms, pressing her cleavage up in a way he’s pretty sure is intentional, and frowns at him. “It’s protein, and dairy, and starch, and… Pickles were vegetables at one point, right? So it’s basically a balanced meal.”

“Sara…”

“Please?”

Apparently, leaving work in the middle of the day so Sara can create a disgusting concoction is _not_ where he draws the line.

Usually, the ways he can help her are more just being there and listening than actually doing anything. It should be a relief, but in a lot of ways, it’s harder. When she complains about how much a particular lab test sucks, he contacts Dr. Snow hoping for an alternative (there isn’t one). When Sara talks about how sore she is, he tries to find solutions, but she just smiles at him and leans back into his side. He finally gets the hang of it, mostly, around the time her doctor appointments increase in frequency.

“I hate having to go in all the time! It’s already getting hard enough to get anywhere.”

“I know. I’m sorry, it’s shit.”

“Thanks, Len.”

And so the summer goes, finding balance while life rushes by, and then it’s Labor Day, and they’ve somehow agreed to a party at Star Labs. He likes everyone there, they both do, but the lab’s massive size means the party gets pretty massive, too. Ramon and Dr. Wells, surprisingly, go all out with the decorations. There are streamers and posters, and they’ve even rigged the building’s lights to change along with the music. Caitlin Snow _beams_ when she walks in, and then Wells’ involvement makes more sense. Lisa’s there, and Laurel, and Quentin, West, plus almost everyone Leonard has ever met.

Sara takes one look at Leonard, laughs, then kisses his cheek, moving to mingle in the center of the room while he watches comfortably from a corner. She comes and checks on him periodically, bringing him food or drinks or, one time, entertainment in the form of dragging a trio of nerds over to debate in front of him. Sara leaves again once Leonard gets involved in the debate, smiling as she goes.

Battlestar Galactica debates are important.

When Sara is about 32 weeks pregnant, she starts having trouble sleeping more often than not. They start going out to a nearby diner at 2am, and Leonard is always tired, and he’s pretty sure he’s going to regret the regular disruption in his sleep, but it’s nice, distracting her how he can, as well as getting time alone with her. He doesn’t have much more of that, he knows.

By the time they get to her baby shower (thrown by Felicity, Lisa, and Laurel), Sara and Leonard are both used to functioning on very little sleep, and Leonard is about ready to deck the next person who tells them it’s getting them used to having a newborn. Otherwise, though, the co-ed baby shower is surprisingly pleasant, and Sara and Leonard get a good mix of things they could use and things they’ll never touch.

They also get a good deal of ribbing about the fact that their baby girl hasn’t been named yet, but they still have a little over a month. They know they’ll get there.

In the next month, they find a new rhythm. The midnight wakeups are still a thing, but they extend their workday by an hour or two so they can nap after lunch and still get everything done. The crew is really good at reminding them they need the sleep, and they even set up a bunk bed in a spare office, turning it into a nap area and an on-call room for the unusual schedules the team sometimes has to deal with for specific jobs.

They finish decorating the nursery. It’s ridiculous how many cute things can fit in one little room. All it needs is their daughter, who finally has a name, though they haven’t yet shared it with anyone.

***

On Halloween, Sara’s about a week from her due date, and she’s basically uncomfortable all the time. She doesn’t remember what it’s like to be able to look down and see her feet, or for her back to be something other than achy, or to have a normal sized bladder or stomach. She waddles when she walks, and it feels like a bowling ball has taken up residence between her pelvic bones.

She’s determined to enjoy the Halloween party, though. She even got Len to dress up as a vampire. Star Labs has been turned into a private haunted house for the occasion, with celebrations in the Cortex after navigating the spooky hallways. Sara rubs her back absently when she feels a twinge of discomfort; it’s been happening off and on for weeks now, these “fake” contractions. Mostly they’ve been distracting but not particularly painful.

She ignores another twinge when she’s talking with Felicity, and a few more while she argues with Ray over electronic surveillance methods. Sara loses track of how many contractions she has while snacking with Iris. They’re getting a lot harder to ignore, though, and Sara is considering finding somewhere to put her feet up when Leonard is suddenly at her side, a hand on her lower back.

“Alright?” he asks quietly.

Sara nods, but she’s not actually entirely sure, now that she’s focused on her body and what it’s telling her.

“I think so,” she says, “but is Caitlin–”

“I’m right here,” her doctor interrupts. “Your contractions have been regular and getting closer together for most of the night. Plus, they were getting easier to spot from across the room.”

Sara winces as if on cue, and Dr. Snow leads her and Leonard to what looks like a cross between a lab and a doctor’s office. Miraculously, nobody seems to notice their departure.

“I was about to come check on you,” Caitlin says. “We should probably head to the hospital, but I thought I’d check you out here first, if that’s alright. We can let the hospital know what room to get ready for you if I give them an idea of how you’re progressing.”

Sara’s dressed as a skeleton and has to strip entirely in order to let Caitlin check her. She’s only just gotten undressed when Leonard hands her a Star Labs sweatshirt that’s big enough on her that it could almost be a dress, and he kisses her before checking again that the door is locked. He returns to take her hand, and Sara fights to stay still through even sharper contractions while Caitlin does her thing.

“First-time labor usually takes some time,” Caitlin’s saying, her voice calm and even, “so we should have enough–”

Sara takes a deep breath, focusing on the pressure of Leonard’s hand on hers. “She’s coming now, isn’t she?” Sara’s certain of it, suddenly.

“She is,” Caitlin answers, still calm. “We should have everything we need here, though, to deliver her safely. My guess is that you’ve been in labor all day.”

Things move impossibly faster after that. Dr. Wells helps out, since he’s got both some medical training and discretion, and he knows where everything is. The pain gets bad enough that Sara loses track of time, but she’s pretty sure it’s not actually very long before Dr. Snow says encouragingly, “Okay, Sara, one more push and you and Leonard are officially parents.”

And then the baby is crying and Sara is crying and her hand in Leonard’s has gone numb, and Sara meets Leonard’s eyes to see his are damp and riveted on their daughter’s face.

_They have a daughter._

***

Leonard’s biggest emotions are still awe and relief when, after Sara’s had a turn and Caitlin’s cleaned the baby up a bit, he finally has his daughter in his arms. He leans over to kiss Sara, who laughs happily, and they’re still at Star Labs, and it all feels a little surreal.

It’s also perfect.

At Sara’s urging, he and the newborn leave the private room while Caitlin checks out Sara and gets an ambulance for the transfer to the hospital for a more thorough once-over. The baby is wrapped in a blanket, and her startlingly blue eyes are fixed somewhere near his face. Leonard makes his way to the Cortex, still dressed as Dracula, and looks around at their friends and family in their various costumes, waiting for someone to notice that he’s not alone.

It takes about three minutes.

The room goes silent, save for the cheesy Halloween music, which Cisco quickly cuts off before he stares in shock along with everyone else.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Leonard says, watching his daughter’s face, distantly noting that his voice is even and ridiculously proud, “may I introduce Alexa Bellona Snart.”

***

Alexa is a month old when Leonard proposes.

For so long he ran through his plans, his contingency plans, his backup contingency plans. Months, he thought about his proposal. At least he knows what her answer will be, but still, he wants it to be special. Memorable.

Then one day, it just clicks.

There’s nothing special about the day, to an outsider. They’re in the living room, and the baby is spending some quality time on her tummy time mat while Sara does careful yoga next to her, and it hits Leonard abruptly, his intentions going off the rails at full speed.

This _is_ special, and memorable. This is them, and their life, and he couldn’t ask for a better moment.

He ducks into the bedroom and retrieves the ring from a hidden compartment in Sara’s dresser (he figured she’d be less likely to search her own). He goes back out into the living room, gets down on the floor between two of the most important women in his life, and waits until Sara looks at him.

“Marry me?” he asks, holding out the small, velvet box.

“Finally!” Sara grins and launches herself onto Leonard, sending him to the floor while Alexa watches, head wobbling. “I was about ready to ask you myself.”

“Is that a yes?” Leonard asks, fighting the smile tugging at his own lips.

Sara kisses him before she answers (yes, of course), before she’s even seen the ring. Once the jewelry is finally on her finger, Leonard decides it suits her perfectly.

When their friends throw them a surprise engagement party a few days later, there’s enough fuss over the ring that he suspects everyone else agrees.

They’re engaged for only two months before getting married. Their wedding is not, to Raymond’s intense disappointment, _Lord of the Rings_ themed. It’s bigger than he would have thought, but their family has grown, and their friends have become family, and as much as he wants to, he has to admit that they can’t leave anybody out. Still, they keep it simple, and Sara is utterly breathtaking.

And then they’re married.

***

“Unca Mick!” One-year-old Alexa reaches her chubby little arms up for Mick, giggling as he picks her up, spins her around, and sets her down again, only for the two of them to repeat the whole process again immediately after.

Sara is curled into Leonard’s side on the couch. His arm is around her as they watch their daughter play with Mick. The rest of Alexa’s birthday guests have left.

“You know,” Sara says quietly, looking up at Leonard, “all this started with a party I didn’t even want to go to.”

“That seems to be a theme in our relationship,” Leonard drawls, and Sara smirks.

“You know you like the parties almost as much as Ray does now.”

“I know no such thing,” he retorts, pulling Sara even closer.

She rests her head on his shoulder. “What I’m trying to say is, sometimes life is funny and doesn’t go anything like anyone thought it would. And then it ends up like this instead.”

Leonard agrees. “It ends up so much better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, thank you all. Special thanks to the ladies who helped me through this, and to Tavyn, who demanded it in the first place <3


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